From Vinh Stadium to Hang Day Stadium Memories: Painful Lessons from Flares
(Baonghean.vn) - 11 years ago, at Vinh Stadium, “horror” and any other strong words were used to describe the riots in the match between SLNA and Hai Phong. September 11, at Hang Day Stadium, can also be considered a dark day for Vietnamese football. The common point of all the causes was flares.
Heads heated up by “flares”
Flares and parachute flares are products used for rescue at sea, when burned, they reach temperatures of 2,000 to 3,000 degrees Celsius. These are not banned items and are widely sold on the market, especially in the port city of Hai Phong. Not only in Vietnam, flares are banned by FIFA on football fields around the world.
In 2008, during the match between SLNA and Hai Phong, riots broke out, fans fought, countless people were injured, and one Nghe An fan died after being run over by a car carrying Hai Phong fans.
The most horrifying scenes happened, worse than the previous match against The Cong, Vinh stadium was suspended until the end of the 2008 season (3 matches), fined 50 million VND and SLNA was deducted 3 points for allowing the riot to happen.
Those were unforgettable days for Hai Phong fans as well as true SLNA fans. And the source of what happened that day was flares. Hai Phong fans lit them after their team scored the equalizer at the end of the match, igniting a terrible fight.
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| The 2008 Vinh Stadium riots were sparked by flares. Photo courtesy |
Fortunately, after many years of this story settling down, Hai Phong fans and SLNA fans officially joined hands in 2012, "closing the past, looking towards the future", together building a good relationship for the team and for Vietnamese football.
Realizing that flares are a danger of riots and leave a bad image, Hai Phong fans have not set off flares at Vinh Stadium since then. Of course, Vinh Stadium's organizers have had enough experience to control such problems. On the contrary, SLNA fans who come to Hai Phong, although few, are very well-intentioned.
In what happened at Hang Day on September 11, when Nam Dinh scored an equalizer, flares were lit in the excessive excitement of the fans and made the heads in the stands agitated. Especially when Nam Dinh lost 1-6, sadness and anger turned into anger and Nam Dinh fans used flares to vent their anger.
At foreign football stadiums such as Thailand and Malaysia, security cameras are installed in series in the stands to control fans.Bukit Zalil Stadium, with a capacity of nearly 90,000, a fan caught smoking will be caught by security. In the Netherlands, fans will be banned from entering the stadium for 10 years if security forces discover them bringing flares into the stadium.
The role of the fan club
The terrible consequences were that a female fan sitting in stand A was severely burned and a traffic police officer was beaten by a group of fans, breaking his arm.
Obviously, the riots occurred due to the irresponsibility and subjectivity of Hanoi FC and Hang Day Stadium Organizing Committee. But it should be remembered that Hang Day was previously exempted from the stadium suspension for a similar mistake, the cause of which came from the VFF Disciplinary Board.
The stadium organizers failed to complete their tasks and failed to control the “hooligan” and extremist elements, but all the fights and flares lit in the stands originated from the way the match was organized by the Fans’ Association and the head of this organization.
The writer still remembers that after the riot in 2008, the leaders of the Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, The Cong, SLNA Fan Clubs... sat together. Mr. Nguyen Hong Phong - Chairman of the SLNA Fan Club was the one who proposed a short exchange, fans of the two teams gave flowers to each other before each match and agreed on many issues to move towards real football. A small but humane and meaningful action.
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| SLNA and Hai Phong fan clubs have recently joined hands to aim for a beautiful match. Photo: SLNA FC |
In 2013, the Hai Phong, SLNA, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Northern fan clubs also sat together, including Nam Dinh fans, at a Gala event at the end of the 2013 V.League season. Unfortunately, the attendees did not include representatives from the Hanoi fan club. That intimacy and connection has not been maintained until now.
Now, people are asking why Hanoi and Hang Day Stadium are the favorite destinations for flares and disturbances by extremists. Where are the security forces when they cannot screen the audience who bring "prohibited items" into the stadium? However, if representatives of Hanoi fans and Nam Dinh fans had sat down together before the match, things certainly would not have turned out so badly.
The true fans of Nam Dinh have spent a lot of effort to build a beautiful image of Thanh Nam football and Vietnamese football. But then just one match ruined it all.
Not only VFF, VPF and Hang Day Stadium Organizing Committee need to be vigilant, but it is time for V.League Fan Clubs to take action and come together for the development of Vietnamese football. The stadium is the stand of the fans, and no security or Organizing Committee can monitor the fans better than the core members of the Club.
Drawing lessons from the past, on September 15, when SLNA visits B. Binh Duong, the SLNA Fan Club has adopted the policy of “no flares” on all fronts. This is a call that has been widely approved and supported. The lessons from the past are very valuable, hopefully the Fan Clubs will unite to avoid unfortunate incidents like the recent one.
Besides, football teams in Vietnam also need to be more sincere and care about fan clubs and groups instead of just giving them hundreds of tickets and leaving it up to the stadium organizers and security.
The heavy penalties for clubs and stadium organizers only solve the tip of the iceberg, not the core, the root of the problem. If we want professional fans, from the tournament organizers, the teams, the players and the referees themselves must also take the lead in behaving professionally and in a fair manner./.
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