Free topic: Violence in soccer stadiums.

Hello dear readers, I hope you are having a great week.

In this blog, I will talk about a topic that I like very much, which is soccer. But from an unfortunate perspective that this has, as is the violence in stadiums.

Soccer is a sport that was institutionalized in England with the formation of the first Football Association on the planet in 1863. However, there are antecedents about that its origin goes back to the II and III century B.C., where ancient Chinese military played it, but without the rules, with which it is known today.

In our country, soccer arrived at the end of the XIX century, to the city of Valparaíso, brought by English immigrants who with impressive matches managed to enchant the locals. Shortly after this happened, a journalist and two English merchants formed the Football Association of Chile with its respective competition on June 19th, 1895. And in this way, the first clubs in the country emerged: Santiago Wanderers, Santiago National, Rangers and other teams.

By 1920, it was already a social phenomenon, as famous as basketball and boxing. It was also in this decade that the most popular clubs in the country today were born: Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile.  However, the rivalry between these two began to take shape in the 1960s.

After that decade, new rivalries appeared between other teams in the country. At the beginning, these rivalries were considered healthy. However, little by little, a hatred began to flourish between the fans of the different teams, which turned into violence.

 When we talk about violence in soccer, it is impossible not to remember some episodes that have happened in Chile. For example, in 2015, there was a confrontation between Colo Colo and Wanderers fans in Valparaíso, who entered the field to physically attack each other; also recently, in a Copa Libertadores match, Universidad Católica fans threw stones and flares at the visiting Flamengo fans; likewise last year, in the Rancagua stadium, Universidad de Chile fans entered the field and assaulted some of the team's players. And in this way, we could continue mentioning other events that have occurred in stadiums in our country.

But what can be done to stop this violence?

Well, first of all, we are not the only country in the world that has had or has this problem. For example, in England, in the 80s, English fans, known as Hooligans, unleashed a spiral of violence and tragedy in British soccer fields. But strong laws to punish, thorough investigations led by intelligence groups and exemplary penalties were enough to defeat the Hooligans.

In our country, in 2011, the Chilean government presented the “Safe Stadium” plan, which sought to eradicate violence in Chilean soccer and guarantee the safety of all stadium attendees. However, this plan failed miserably. First, the plan lacked a strong social and police prevention system. And secondly, the existing laws do not consider the fans as actors of violence. On the other hand, the current government that we have, presented a new plan, but unfortunately, it has not yet been implemented. The bad thing is that if this new plan does not work, we will have lost again the battle against violence in soccer stadiums.

What do you think about this?

Can you think of any other way to eradicate violence in the stadiums of our country?

Please!  let me know in the comments.

A hug and thanks for reading my blog.