#Orlando

Day -731. ‪WorldCup2018‬

There definitely will be no happy Sunday World Cup memory from me today after the tragic events in Orlando. While we slept those poor people, 50 of them (50, its incredibly sad) were gunned down while they were out having fun, not harming anybody, not annoying anybody. When Russia 2018 starts I will look back at my daily posts to remind myself of the events that occurred over the 1000 days. And this will be one of those sad ones, which, I hope, we all hope, will have at least contributed to something finally changing that in 731 days we don't have to wake up to news like this again.
I woke up on a Sunday morning to watch football, day 3 of the Euros. And I still watched, while switching back to the news, because it is human nature that recourse to a mental comfort zone is needed when things like this happen that we, who haven't experienced them, cannot fully comprehend.

Maybe it was because of this that the non-football news from the Euros made me angrier than it would have on a normal day. UEFA threatened to kick Russia and England out of the Euros if there is any more violence from their fans. While the English supporters claim they were attacked while merely enjoying a few beers in Marseille bars, the Russians ran at the England sections in the stadium yesterday at the end of their match.

The Russians have history. The Russian FA was fined and warned after the fans' terrible behaviour at the last Euros. While English supporters are mostly drunken louts with a lingering reputation from the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s, the Russians (and Serbs and a few others) are violent, seriously violent.

But no matter the level of violence I say to UEFA, "do it, kick them out". Maybe finally they will learn what idiots they are. Football hooliganism has always angered me, because what is the point? You are idiots. Plain and simple. Yes, there are religious and ethnic divisions that are behind much of the Eastern European fan violence. It is said that the war in Bosnia started because of a fight at a football match. It is true that the match did highlight rivalries between different ethnicities, and probably did nothing to help the simmering tensions. In England and other Western European countries it is attachment to a team and it's representation of a fan's town, city or region and the need to assert supremacy over others representing a different town, city or region that leads to these incidents of hooliganism.

Whatever it is it, it is so dumb. This is football, this is a sport. If you care about what you represent so much, become a politician, an activist. Petition your government for change, protest, take to the streets but keep your violence out of football. Yes, it is a very public way to get your message across but what did the flying of the "Greater Albania" flag over the stadium during the Albania-Serbia qualifying match actually achieve other than more violence.

And when it comes to dumb when are English supporters going to realize that it is not ok to drink and drink and then act like idiots? Idiots who then annoy the locals who did not ask you to be in their town, on their streets throwing bottles and chairs and making them worry for their safety. I don't buy the "it's only harmless fun" brought on by a few beers. They are a menace and should be kicked out of the host country. And if the only way they will leave is by getting rid of the team, then so be it.

I missed most of the late news from Marseille yesterday so I looked it up today and one of the videos I came across was of English fans "enjoying themselves" in Marseille during the day. And there he was. The idiot (yes, I use that word a lot), shirtless and climbing up the street signs. There's always one who thinks he is going to achieve worldwide acclaim by clambering up a pole and leading the rest of his drunken idiot friends in songs about the Germans and the war and the IRA. Now the French police, on the lookout for any sign of any terrorist activity, have to deal with a loser who may lose his balance, fall off his pole and they, the police, have to deal with the consequences and defend their "over the top" policing.

Send them all home: the Russians, the English, the Croats, the Turks, the Hungarians, anybody. Let the rest of us enjoy the football.