Ugly grimace

Soccer’s ugly face is showing everywhere!

Brutal attacks in soccer are not a regional or national phenomenon.(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Johanna Schlosser, Harald Dostal)

Whether international, national or regional: explosions of violence of all kinds can be observed in soccer, especially at amateur and youth level. Perhaps because the supposedly big role models are often not even small ones? We shed light on current incidents and possible counter-strategies.

"If a referee gets beaten up, it's a good kick in the pants, there's a mass brawl ..." When Rainhard Fendrich first sang "Long live sport" in 1983, the lyrics were ridiculed as highly exaggerated. Today, it seems more like a gloomy premonition, even if the violence in soccer has shifted from the big stadiums to the streets or amateur pitches thanks to video surveillance. Where even referees now fight: In the fall of 2021, for example, an assistant in the Innviertel region pulled a referee's flag over a player's skull ...

An isolated incident? Yes, but ...