Saturday, June 10, 2006

A Dry, Deary Match and a Bleeding Football Hooligan

Currently still soaked with lager and ales, I am going to blog about what I just experienced. We are into the second day of the World Cup 2006 and this was the day England was to play their first game, against Paraguay. I don’t normally watch premiership football, since I am not a fan of the game, but when countries play each other at the FIFA world championships, the atmosphere becomes jubilant and I just have to watch.

I met up with some friends to watch the match on the big 100 ft screen at Canary Wharf’s Canada Square. There was a crowd of about a thousand people gathered on the grass at the time of kick-off, some who had been there picnicking since mid-morning, others had just arrived holding England flags and wearing “Lampard” football shirts. The ambience was like a rock concert and as the rare London sunshine crept into the square, on this hot day, everyone’s spirits were high.





















We stood about 150 ft from the screen and every now and then, people around us would squirt their lager and wine backwards in a shower, along with a bombardment of balloons and sponge footballs. As England scored its first goal, everyone jumped up and down and rain of beer drenched us.























Then England’s game became traditionally English and not a single decent attack was made on the pitch. Half-time passed and the second-half became predictably boring. To escape the humdrum, people around us started throwing beer cans, celery and toilet rolls, among other things, into the air. Then, a fight broke out outside the toilets, by the big screen, around 50 ft in front and to the right of us.























All I could see was a bleeding skin-head covered in blood on his face, hands and back. As the police were called in, the screen went blank and a notice was displayed calling for order, before they resumed showing of the match.

























But order was not restored and instead, football hooligans emerged out of the midst of yet more scuffles. Eventually the police cleared everyone away from the square. An England football match may be a bore, but you can always count on hooligans to spice up the action!