On Wednesday, July 13, the dispute to advance in the Brazilian Cup between Atlético-MG and Flamengo should only take place on the field. However, throughout the day, fights and riots between football supporters were being recorded. At 15:30 on Highway BR-040 near the city of Petrópolis, 60 km away from the stadium where the game would be played, two organized groups of supporters from Atlético-MG fought each other. The incident forced the Federal Police to interdict the highway. A machete was seized, four people were arrested and four were injured.
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Close to the kick-off of the game, the situation became even more tense. Supporters of both teams tried to invade the Maracanã Stadium by forcing the barriers. The sound of bombs scared those who were in the region and a security guard was injured.
Brazil has suffered this year an escalation of violence cases related to football with injured people. From fights between fans, inside and outside the stadiums, to direct attacks on players and referees. A survey carried out by the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) indicates that, for 68% of fans, violence is the main reason for not going to stadiums.
ORIGIN OF THE VIOLENCE IN FOOTBALL STADIUMS
Historically, violence in stadiums happened only in Europe, where hooligans starred in terrifying images. The tragedy of the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium on 29 May 1985 when Juventus fans escaping from Liverpool fans, who had breached the barrier that separated the opposing groups of fans, were pressed against a collapsing wall and 39 people—mostly Italians and Juventus fans—were killed and 600 were injured in the confrontation.
In Brazil, groups of supporters, which had existed since the 1940s, were just bunch of fans with flags and custom shirts, who travelled on their own to support their club wherever it played. However, in the beginning of the 1990s, things changed. On January 23, 1992, in a game between Corinthians and São Paulo within the São Paulo Junior Football Cup, 13-year-old Rodrigo de Gasperi was killed by a homemade bomb thrown by São Paulo fans while watching the game. On August 20, 1995, 16-year-old Marcio Gasparin was clubbed to death during a clash between fans from São Paulo and Palmeiras, at the Pacaembu stadium in São Paulo – the battle left 102 wounded.
Since then, violence has become a commonplace. In the match valid for the B series of the Brazilian championship. The teams of Grêmio and Cruzeiro faced each other in August this year and, at the 27th minute of the first half, the referee had to stop the game due to a fight in the stands. The police had to intervene to separate the crowd. Minutes later, the atmosphere became even more tense. The fight was widespread and fans who did not want to participate in it had to jump over a protection fence to escape. In all, the game was stopped for almost ten minutes. It is worth remembering that in 2021, it was in this same place in the stadium that a group of invaders depredated the VAR booth and attacked security guards after the match between Grêmio and Palmeiras in the Brasileirão, the A series football competition.
VIOLENCE OUTSIDE THE STADIUMS
As of the end of March 2022, Brazil witnessed a case of violence in football every four days during 2022, and according to the Secretary of Public Security, cases of violence between fans and between fans and players “increased considerably” after the return of the public to the stadiums following the Covid 19 lockdown.
In June this year, organized fans of Corinthians and Goiás fought on Marginal Pinheiros, one of the main avenues in São Paulo, and paralyzed the traffic for about two hours. The São Paulo Military Police usually escorts fans from visiting teams when arriving in the capital, but fights may happen before the police arrives.
In Rio de Janeiro, during the month of August, two cases of violence were recorded away from stadiums in the Copacabana neighborhood alone. On the 18, Flamengo and Fluminense fans fought in a bar. Security camera footage shows a group of Flamengo fans arriving at a bar where tricolors were gathered. The aggressions ceased only after the arrival of the police. On August 24, fans from Fluminense and Corinthians fought on the Copacabana beachfront hours before the game between their teams for the Copa do Brasil. In images that circulate on the internet, it is possible to see that the groups face each other next to a kiosk very close to Posto 4. Once again, the confusion only ended when Military Police officers, who were patrolling the area, dispersed the crowd.
SUCCESSFUL RECIPE
In the last 30 years, the British, Italians, French and Spanish have started to successfully combat violence in stadiums through the implementation of several measures. In the book Futebol e Violência, Unicamp professor Heloisa Helena Baldy dos Reis lists 21 actions suggested in the 1980s by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Among them, prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages, ostensible policing inside and outside the stadium, including plainclothes agents in the streets and stands, rigorous search of fans, restriction of audience circulation to specific sectors of the stadium and installation of cameras to allow the identification of aggressors. In addition, the punishment of clubs whose fans engaged in violent actions was made much stricter. After the 1985 incident, for example, all English clubs were banned from European competition for five years.
On the other hand, while Western Europe has successfully tackled the problem, Brazil is not the only country where football has often become synonymous with violence in the stands. In recent years, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, as well as Russia and Eastern European countries and also countries with less football tradition, such as Israel and Indonesia, witnesses violence incidents. In these countries, the organized supporters became professional and enriched.
THE RESPONSE OF THE BRAZILIAN AUTHORITIES
In 2003, a Fan Statute was created to guarantee rights and duties to fans. Some of the laws and prohibitions that are in force today have been present in the Statute since its creation. Members of organized supporters group can only enter with their uniforms, musical instruments, and flags in a dedicated part of the stadium.
Since 2013, when Vasco and Athletico Paranaense fans faced each other during a game in Joinville (SC), that ended with four people injured, many states implemented new measures against violence in football. One of them is to maintain a database on the participants of organized supporters, shared with the police.
In 2016, during a fight between Palmeiras and Corinthians at Pacaembu Stadium, one fan was killed and 57 were detained. This new case motivated the Public Prosecutor’s Office to ask the FPF (São Paulo Football Federation) that the matches in the state of São Paulo be played with only one team’s supporters in the stadium. The FPF complied with the request and determined that only the home team’s fans would be at the stadium on derbies.
However, cases of violence between organized groups continued to be reported. But now, fans fight mostly far from the stadiums. For the Drade (Police Station for Repression of Sports Crimes) delegate – a department of the Civil Police of São Paulo -, Cesar Antônio Saad, the permission of only fans from one team reduced violence in the stadiums but transferred the fights to the periphery and other public places, such as train and subway stations. In order to escape the investigations, and because of the restrictive rules, they end up setting up ambushes far from where the police concentrate their actions.
According to experts, the lack of effective punishment is the main cause of recidivism between supporters. A legislative change would be the way for authorities to be able to apply more rigorously the laws pertaining to the Fan Statute and the Penal Code.
