Note to America: Beware of Hooligans in World Cup ’94

Picture yourself living in peaceful Ann Arbor, Mich., in a neighborhood not far, perhaps, from the University of Michigan’s 104,000-seat stadium, when, one otherwise silent night in 1994, your sidewalks and shops and campus corner pubs become overrun with drunken, delinquent British soccer fans, in town for a game of the World Cup.

And soon, sirens begin wailing, and Washtenaw County cops begin coming in waves to control and collar these mad dogs and Englishmen, and before long some night-court judge has every bailiff and deputy in the building busy booking or restraining a mob of punks with spiked, purple haircuts and studded, fingerless leather gloves.

Or, picture yourself in the general vicinity of the Yale Bowl one quiet weeknight in New Haven, Conn., when a whacked-out party of West Germans goes wild and loots its way through the streets, smashing windows, accosting townies.

Or, possibly you see yourself sitting down to a quiet supper in Palo Alto, Calif., when, from the general direction of Stanford Stadium, some 85,000 spectators are caught in a stampede, touched off by hostile Dutch rowdies, incensed by a referee’s call.

Hooligans.

That’s what they call them in soccer circles. That’s what they call them here in Italy, where government and law-enforcement authorities have gone crazy attempting to keep the peace. Arrests of rioting, rumbling, misbehaving tourists, ostensibly here to watch their national teams play soccer, have been multiplying day by day since World Cup play began on June 8, with swift-acting justices meting out jail sentences ranging in length from six months to two years.

“I think it’s disgusting,” said Peter Vermes, 23, a New Jersey native playing in this tournament for the United States, but also the first American to play first-division soccer in Hungary and Holland. “These people are low-lifes. I’ve been exposed to their kind once too often in Europe, and we don’t want them contaminating the World Cup when it comes to America.

“The only way we’re ever going to get rid of them is to start disqualifying teams from the tournament,” Vermes said. “Warn each side that you’re going to award a forfeit or even throw their country right out of the Cup if they can’t do something about their fans. That’ll get the message across.”

If this is not a concern in America now, perhaps it should become one and soon. Anywhere from eight to 12 stadiums will be put to use throughout the United States in ‘94, when the World Cup comes there for the first time--and with the tournament comes its followers. Civic and academic officials who have volunteered their facilities--Michigan, Yale and Stanford among them--might wish to think twice after checking out the police blotters of Milan or Cagliari, off Italy’s coast on the isle of Sardinia.

Riot squads were out in full force Saturday night as Cagliari braced for a Cup match between England and the Netherlands, whose respective fans have been among the most voluble and violent in soccer. Some believe these two particular teams were deliberately “exiled” to first-round games on the island to at least minimize the destruction on Italy’s mainland.

There has been anxious talk of prearranged rumble sites, complicated by the danger of spontaneous, game-related incidents. English fans have been so unruly, they are not allowed off the British Isles except for national-team competition such as this. The specter of 94 dead after the horrifying Sheffield stadium stampede of 1989 is always present, as well as that of the 39 people killed at a match between English and Italian teams four years ago in Brussels.

English hooligans can be particularly cruel and profane. They taunted German fans in Dusseldorf with hateful chants that included: “Drink your beer, rape your women.”

Another time, at the European championships, the theme of their constant baiting of the Germans from the grandstand was their having won “Two World Wars, One World Cup.” The brawling that ensued after the game was expected and almost understandable.

Hooliganism is hardly an English monopoly. The Irish know a thing or two about it; the word hooligan itself is taken from an Irishman’s name.

At a 1989 World Cup qualifying game, a Brazilian spectator flung a Roman candle-style firecracker that so frightened Chile’s goalie, he dropped to the ground, thinking he had been shot. Three years before, at a Cup qualifier in China, dozens were trampled after the unexpected defeat of the host team. At least 20 died, and soldiers had to be called in to quell the uprising.

“At a game in Amsterdam that I attended last year, the Ajax team fell behind in a shoot-out in overtime, and all hell broke loose,” Vermes said. “The fans threw objects and stormed the railing. They were warned to stop, and when they didn’t, a 3-0 forfeit was awarded. That’s when things really got bad, and the Ajax team ended up being suspended from international play for at least a year.”

At one point that day, Dutch fans hurled Molotov cocktails--bottles filled with gasoline or lighter fluid and flaming rags--at others in the stands.

“Sickening,” Vermes said.

He happens to be a young American who believes in fighting for freedom, not over soccer results. Vermes’ father escaped Soviet-occupied Hungary in November, 1956, being recaptured several times and shot once before fleeing successfully and finally making his way to America. Before he defected, Michael Vermes played professional soccer for Hungary.

“My father would like nothing more than for soccer to become as successful and popular in his chosen country as it was in his homeland,” Vermes said.

With popularity, though, comes attention and commotion. Proposed World Cup sites for 1994 include the Rose Bowl and Coliseum, four Florida football arenas and other sites ranging from Chicago’s Soldier Field to Dallas’ Cotton Bowl, from the new Minnesota Sports Complex to even the 32,000-seat Sam Boyd Silver Bowl in Las Vegas. Even the Navy-Marine facility at Annapolis, Md., is ready to enlist.

They had better know what they could be getting their stadiums into--and who could be getting into their stadiums.