Tough Week For West Ham Climaxes In Violence

[Dirty Tackle]

It began a couple days ago with the stabbing of Calum Davenport in his home; it was exacerbated by the death of Jack Collison’s father, who was on his way to watch his son take on Tottenham; and all was seen toppling over during the Carling Cup match against Millwall last night in a midweek edition of the East London derby. Suffice it to say, this has not been a pretty week for the Hammers.

We often poke fun at South America or Eastern Europe for their “crowd issues”, to say the least, and some even cite Britain as a shining example for the rest of the world when it comes to the new game. Well the reports of these riots, which began outside the stadium, read like a greatest hits of South American and European football:

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed that “hundreds” of supporters had fought in the streets around Upton Park tube station before kick-off, hurling bricks and bottles at each other. There were reports of darts being thrown and of some small fires having been lit and bollards ripped up, with more police rushed to the scene as the clashes intensified.

Bricks, bottles and other random unidentified objects are the plain vanilla standards, but darts are a wonderfully kosher addition to any football riot. No chance even the most errant dart could poke out an eye, pierce the wrong vein or deflate the wrong implant. So long as Phil Taylor was off in a pub somewhere, all’s well.

This will likely take the FA and local police eons to clean up, not uncommon for many derby “celebrations” the world over. What they can’t clean up after the fact is that this game had all the potential to be a heartfelt story of a young Jack Collison’s return to the pitch two days after his father’s death. Unfortunately a football game which could’ve been more than just a game for all the right reasons, is more than just a game for all the wrong ones.

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Category: World Football