ENGLUN’ (THUMP, THUMP)

Marvelous timing in the arrival of Richard Eder’s review of Bill Buford’s “Among the Thugs” (June 14). It appeared concurrently with the occasion of the European (soccer) championship, on the very day in fact that rioting English football supporters would again leave their mark on the continent. This occurred in Malmo, Sweden, following England’s 0-0 draw with France.

As Mr. Eder accurately points out, such conduct has nothing to do with soccer. Whether the English win, lose or draw is never an issue. The issue is nationalism--nationalism of a most plebeian kind, since it requires the spilling of “foreign” blood. If the accounts I’ve read are correct, the first clashes at Malmo were not between rival “firms” but with the Swedish police.

I wonder, does the spectacle of a few hundred depraved Anglo-Saxon goons, fueled by enough watered-down lager to flood a fiord and chanting “Englun’ (thump, thump), Englun’ (thump, thump), ENGLUN’! “, move the placid Scandinavian to dread or to pity rather, for the English class system that breeds these louts.

I recall the aftermath of the Heysel Stadium riot in Brussels which killed 39 Italian fans: When the English hooligans were arraigned, their defense counsel argued (with a straight face) that the lads couldn’t get a fair trial in Belgium because the jury would not be able to understand their lobscouse accents.

Be assured that English “thug culture” has its fellows in Germany and the Netherlands. Surely as the European body politic waxes darker in its intolerance of “foreigners,” and national-front groups gather strength, we can expect to see more of this ugliness, not less. But it would be wrong to blame it on soccer.

WILLIAM TIERNEY

HERMOSA BEACH