A football supporter died in Helsingborg on Sunday following an assault on his way to the opening game of the 2014 Allsvenskan football season.
It's been around 12 years since Swedish firm member Tony Deogan was beaten to death in Stockholm in connection with a football game between AIK and IFK Göteborg. (A firm member is a kind of Danny Dyer in Football Factory.) About a year later, the investigation was discontinued due to witnesses refusing to testify. The case gained huge press in Sweden. Not only because it was the first time in the history of Swedish football that someone had died. It was also revealed that the prosecutors had lost documents regarding the case and as a result, the entire thing turned into a never-ending blame game.
The difference between when Tony Deogan died and what happened this Sunday is that in the case of the former, a fight broke out between two supporter crews. Grown-up drunk men had picked a time and place to beat each other up in an old-school testosterone manor. It sounds childish of course, but above anything, it was a sad result of the gathering of a few macho individuals. On Sunday however, a 43-year-old father of four supporting Djurgårdens IF happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now Sweden is standing still, mourning and trembling in the dark, trying to find someone once again to blame. Last time, a macho culture was blamed although no one took full responsibility. This time, blame is steered at the same direction – despite the fact that the only similarity between the two incidents is that a man has died in connection to a football game.
Annons
Considering other recent turbulent events in Sweden that have ended in devastating ways – the most recent being the assault of football supporter and left-wing activist Showan Shattack, which ended with him getting a cracked skull – the first blame-attacks connected a suspect to neo-Nazi party Svenskarnas Parti (SvP), with some claiming that he had connections to Showan's alleged perpetrator who still is on the run. This isn't in any way confirmed. It's most likely not to be true at all. But it shows that Sweden currently is a fragile place. In fact, lately riot-like gatherings have happened every other week or so, whether it's International Women's Day, a football game or during an anti-racist demonstration.- - -
Before Sunday's horrible incident, the disturbances had begun already the night before on Saturday when supporters of Djurgårdens IF allegedly chased Helsingborgs IF supporters into a bar in central Helsingborg. The trouble-makers had ripped apart electric cables and trashed the place into pieces. A couple of guests attending the bar were assaulted so bad that they had to be taken to hospital, according to the police. On Sunday, VICE staff boarded the evening train from Malmö via Helsingborg to Stockholm and ended up sitting next to a majority of mourning Djurgården IF supporters. One guy who had witnessed the bar event told us that "two girls in their twenties had their faces slashed with broken bottles. They had nothing to do with the game on Sunday". Three people were arrested. The bar incident stirred up anger that continued to blossom the following day.
It was about an hour before kick-off on Sunday afternoon when a few supporters began to fight. The police refuse to give details about the exact order of events that followed. But what we do know is that the 43-year-old suddenly was lying down on the street with ambulance staff trying to save his life.
When news of his death hit the football stadium, Djurgårdens IF supporters demanded the game to be brought to en end. And when the referee failed to immediately respond to their exhortation, pitch-entering began. When the request eventually was met and the game was terminated, the atmosphere had already turned soar, leading to a trail of fights and vandalism throughout the day.Similar to the aftermath of what happened in 2002 when Tony died, the incident has stirred up yet another blame game. The Swedish Football Association blame the police, the Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask, blame the football supporters as a whole and the masses of supporters are standing numb. What was about to be the starting point of seven months of celebrations, began as a – to Sweden – alien tragedy.This morning, it was announced that a possible offender has turned himself in to the police – a single individual taking some responsibility for assault. So why is it still that Sweden are looking at the crowds to find the problem? Surely, we must recognise that when a few people do wrong it isn't the fault of a group. Furthermore, until the case has been investigated properly, could we please refrain from looking at the wrong direction? The fact that someone died looks like the result of a major problem in society. So to blame the football supporters as a group for the fault of one person is to take it too far. Sweden is a place full of frustrated individuals who have surfaced over the past few months. Let's look at the root of these issues and take the opportunity to prevent these horrible things from happening in the future – whether it's during a planned macho-gathering à la Fightclub, a feminist demonstration, or before what was supposed to be a long-awaited football game.@lowlifeluxuries
