“Delete my face off of your footage.” It was only then that I truly realized the danger I was in.
“No problem,” I said, meaning every word. “‘I’ll delete it now.” But GoPro owners know that it’s a time-consuming process and the columns of riot police were now encroaching on my teenage buffer zone.
Ten seconds later another four or five parroted the first kid, who was now holding my arm. “Delete it now, delete it now.”
“Give me the camera!” another bellowed. Later I understood that they must have believed me to be an undercover agent, filming the scene for identification purposes.
One reached for the GoPro. Not knowing if they intended to steal the camera, I decided to keep a firm grip on the metallic silver picture box, stuffing my hand and the camera in my shirt pocket. Fifteen or so now surrounded me, and realizing that I was not giving into their demands, they turned to aggression.
One grabbed my neck; another threw a punch that grazed the top of my head. Violence is by nature contagious and now a teenager, who could not have been older than 17, was in my face.
He made yet another demand for the camera, his fist raised beside his ear and his eyebrows raised, as if to assure me, “I will hit you.”
I remember feeling a little bemused before bowing my head in anticipation and trying to head-butt his fist. His blow landed just under my balding cowlick.
After several blows landed, I was sure that the chances of having a calm, logical conversation was now out of the question. Keeping my hands in my pocket like a running back I ploughed through a very skinny defensive line and pumped my legs, breaking free.
One last straggler had a hold of my Nike helmet-backpack. I let him have it, and stumbled over to a line of police, eating a mouthful of dust and crashing into several thorn bushes on the way.
Socioeconomic demographics and poor infrastructure are the petri dish in which stadium violence breeds in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
In a survey taken in early February 2009 by two private newspapers — El-Khabar (Arabophone) and Liberté (Francophone) — 74.4 percent of a sample of 1,340 15–to–39 year-olds indicated that they believed there’s a correlation between harsh socio-economic conditions in Algeria and violence in football.
Algeria has a youth unemployment rate of 25 percent, Tunisia 30 precent, and Morocco 22 percent. It is also culturally taboo for women to attend matches.
A handful of booths sell tens of thousands of tickets matchday, creating bottlenecked entrances. Online or electronic ticketing services are not yet available. Spectators are then subjected to multiple full body searches, and their safety is often compromised.
Two teenage USM Alger fans fell to their deaths two years ago when the cement gave out from under their feet in the upper bowl of Algiers’ Stade 5 Juillet. They fell 50 feet, dying upon impact. Both families were compensated, and the stadium is undergoing renovations.
On March 23, 2009, whilst campaigning for a third term in office, Algeria’s President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika addressed violence in national stadia.
“The glory of Algerian sport is fading, and sport is witnessing increasing forms of violence. This issue could have grave repercussions if things remain as they are,” he said.
Bouteflika spoke those words less than a year after Algeria’s second largest city, Oran, witnessed widespread riots, following relegation of the city’s historic club, Mouloudia Club d’Oran.
Banks were torched, shopping malls looted, and public administration buildings vandalized.
In response to riots, the Algerian government often reduces prices for basic products such as cooking oil, sugar and flour, and cancels football league matches for weeks at a time, in order to defuse tense scenarios.
Subsidies are temporary fixes, but the global solution to stadium violence remains drastic improvements in infrastructure. No North African stadium is currently equipped with a thorough surveillance system that could be used to identify perpetrators of violence.
Online ticketing is another solution, which would relieve congested entries to venues. An open avenue of communication between official supporters’ associations and club administrations would also ensure fans have a voice and that their support is conducive to a sportsmanlike atmosphere.
