Fans

See now this is story you'd only see happening outside America. Long and short of it, Denmark and Sweden are playing a world cup qualifying match, Ref awards penalty show to Sweden, Danish fan attack ref, game is called and Denmark is forced to forfeit.

You won't find this kind of thing happening in this country for a few reasons.

1 - we aren't that insane. we paint our bodies, we hold up bad signs, we get tattoos, and we even force our kids to humiliate themselves on TV. but that's pretty much the extent of where our sports fever lies. we can't hold a candle to the rest of the world in their passion for soccer. you'll never see and NBA crowd throwing flares onto the court during a game. You won't ever read about an NFL QB getting shot in the street for throwing a game-costing interception in a big game. things like that just don't happen. is this a bad thing? no not really. it's only bad when we pretend we're as passionate or more than the rest of the world. let's not kid ourselves.

2 - our leagues/owners/sponsors/corporate-types don't have the fucking balls to do something like this. in an age where anyone can sue anyone for anything, forcing a forfeit due to fan interference is just BEGGING for the courts to step in.

3 - European soccer leagues hold the clubs responsible for their fans actions. when the fan shit gores down, the leagues do stuff like tell the clubs "your next game, you aren't allowed to have anyone attend. you're playing for an empty stadium". teams feel the financial pinch from letting fans act like assholes. now here in America when fans like the piss-ant scumbag sore losers in Utah start throwing stuff at the opposing players and THEIR WIVES, then something needs to happen. what i vote happens is the "play to no crowd" thing. and then the team just recoups their financial loses by charging double for tickets until they get that money back. AND they print on the tickets "you want to complain about ticket prices? blame the bastards who couldn't act right".

so anyways, i think it's funny when i read about fans in Europe going nuts. i admire their loyalty and zeal.