Referee 'Beheaded And Quartered' By Football Fans After Killing A Player In Brazil

It seems more prevalent in Soccer, and in my opinion its the basic design of the game which does promote it. It's fun to play but not really ideal for crowds imo. I think keeping the most dexterous part of the body (hands) outside of the game builds inner tension, at an emotional level. Try wearing mitt's all day and typing with your toes or your nose for example!!!! Plus its so low scoring, often none during the game itself, which means that tension builds up but is often not realized/released. Often as a result of such low scoring the outcome can be decided by a referee's single decision - which are usually seen as controversial by loyal fans. It all equates to frustration and the crowd's (who are already divided by team loyalty) have nothing better to do then take it out on each other. Other codes which use the hands allow that extra dexterity to generate more interesting game play for crowds to watch, so the excitement is not limited to waiting for scoring, and some other codes even have faster and higher scoring which means games can move faster to be more engaging/distracting for crowds.

How sucky would that be? Defend yourself...though maybe too well...and then have people stone you to death and take your head.

Mob mentality, but maybe it has to do with personal knowledge and self esteem too? People sometimes view their lives as having "nothing good" in it. So they replace their self-worth with a teams successes. When a team is insulted, it's taken as a personal insult. A teams victory it their victory. It's crazy, but a lot of people seem to tie who they are to what they spend their time on. Job, sports team, hobby, etc. Narrow boxes. :dry:

Wendaline wrote: Job, sports team, hobby, etc

Church... :dry:

Whats the primary religion there? Do you think they were considering it when they acted?

Akkarin wrote:

Wendaline wrote: Job, sports team, hobby, etc

Church... :dry:

:laugh: Yup, church can be a narrow box too.

This just goes to show how some people just look for any excuse to incite violence and cause harm to another person. I am a big subscriber to the "Lord of the Flies" theory of humanity and I think good nature is learned through social conduct and also enforced by social mores and laws. Those men did brutal, nasty things to that referee who they must have known was only defending himself. They committed bloody murder in the name of a game. They didn't do it because the man stabbed those guys, they did it because they were angry about a call, and that man stood up for himself, which they simply could not tolerate. Absolutely unacceptable. I hope countries can start getting a better hold on their citizens, because I for one don't believe they will be policing themselves any time soon, given their actions. Absolutely disgusting.

In Buddhism this is called attachment... Much suffering follows.

"Whats the primary religion there? Do you think they were considering it when they acted?"
Christian (Catholic), so if they even gave it a moments consideration they probably thought "eye for an eye" and that they would be able to absolution (if truly repentant) of their sins at the next confession.

As for the behavior of soccer fans versus the behavior of fans from other sports, the difference in the amounts is just too great. Soccer is played everywhere so your fan base consists of the world. Whereas sports like football, polo, gymnastics, basketball, nascar(very questionable), and heck even baseball (still a really large group) have much smaller fan bases. You may also consider the socioeconomic status the players and fans come from. It doesn't take much to get a game going; an even number of people, a ball, and an open field (or street if your urban). It doesn't require all the fancy equipment or even a hard surface for the ball to bounce on. Now I am NOT saying that all soccer fans and the resulting players are impoverished sociopaths nor am I saying that all the people from less fortunate countries are unrefined, unethical neanderthals.