Students Tried to Kick FIFA Boss Sepp Blatter Out of a University in Zurich

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Students Tried to Kick FIFA Boss Sepp Blatter Out of a University in Zurich

But they ended up getting pepper sprayed by the police inside the building.

As part of a lecture series accompanying its 75th anniversary, the ASVZ (Zurich's Academic Sports Association) invited FIFA President Sepp Blatter around the Confederate Technical University (ETH) yesterday to speak on the subject of "Football as a school of life". Given that Blatter heads an organisation which is contriving to​ ruin football by staging the World Cup in whatever dictatorship bribes their officials no matter how badly it treats workers, some people weren't very happy about this.

Annoncering

Unsurprisingly, Indymedia and some other media outlets called for people to  disrupt the event. By 5PM, at least six police vehicles as well as several guards from the private security ETH had also showed up.

At about 5.30PM, chants of "Sepp, you bloody bastard!" could be heard coming from the crowd but the entrance to ETH remained open. The protesters chanted "Joseph Blatter, the dream's over, soon you'll be lying in the trunk" (this rhymes in German).

The protesters started moving closer to the building but police held them back. Calls from inside the demo crowd announced that they'd go for a small "tour" around the ETH. And so they moved to a side entrance on Karl Schmid Strasse.

Unluckily for Blatter and the event organisers, a woman from the security service didn't manage to close the door ahead the demonstrators' arrival. The demo was finally inside. On the top floor, demonstrators met with some riot cops, and set off a red flare. Soon a cat and mouse game started and spilled over the corridors of the ETH. The protesters seemed to know the building much better than the police. Confused students suddenly found themselves between protesters and riot cops armed with pepper spray, batons and rubber shotguns.

Gradually, the demo moved out of the building. In addition to the police they were met by a fire truck, because someone managed to set off the fire alarm. On seeing the mass of police vans, the demonstration broke up quickly. In the end, some people started throwing stones at the police. Finally, the police arrested one (alleged) protester and one (alleged) stone thrower.

Annoncering