February 23 – Brazilian football, still rocked by endemic fan violence despite last year’s rhetoric about a World Cup legacy, suffered more of the same on Sunday when police arrested more than 100 fans before the Vasco da Gama-Fluminense match.
“The first trouble was something we’re used to seeing, fights between fans of Vasco and fans of Fluminense,” police commander Lt. Col. Joao Guimaraes told Globo News TV.
“The second fight was a new phenomenon in Brazilian football, fights between fans of the same team.
“None of them are worried about football and none of them are worried about being Vascainos,” Guimaraes added, using the name given to Vasco fans. “They don’t care about their club.”
So critical has the problem of fan violence become that another Brazilian club recently took the unusual step of hiring hooligans’ mothers to patrol games in a novel attempt to curb the fighting.
Sport Club do Recife hired 30 women to patrol the area around the stadium during the club’s derby against long-time rival Nautico.
The coastal city of Recife has become a hotbed of football-related violence in recent years but these were not just a group of untrained mothers watching over their naughty children. They had been put through their paces by the military police and wore vests bearing the name ‘Seguranca Mae’, which translates as ‘Security Mums’.
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