Association football culture

Fans poured onto the pitch at the Europa League clash between Lyon and Beşiktaş, delaying the start of a violence-hit, high-risk match as European football suffered another body blow on April 13.

About 150 Schalke supporters have clashed with riot police in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki ahead of their team's Europa League match against PAOK.

No arrests or injuries were reported from the violence hours before Thursday's game.

The Higher Court in Belgrade on Wednesday acquitted Pocuca of endangering the safety of Women in Black over a statement he made on Facebook in 2014 calling on football hooligans to target the Serbian peace group.

"For anyone who had doubts - justice always triumphs in the end," Pocuca wrote on Facebook after the verdict.

In our modern day of celebrity status and showbiz, top professional sporting organisations are not just all about athleticism, athletes’ skills and techniques. A growing part of the business of sports is fashion and of course the personal lives of athletes. Therefore it shouldn’t surprise us that a lot of the focus falls on the heroes’ better halves.

Whistling while the national anthem of a rival team was being played and whistling and chanting slogans during a moment of silence for the innocent victims who lost their lives in the Paris massacre - these shameful acts took place just the other night in Istanbul. 

Football hooligans from Greece, Serbia and Croatia have wrought havoc in Athens ahead of Wednesday's UEFA match.

With the UEFA Champions League match between Olympiakos, Greece, and Dinamo, Croatia, scheduled for Wednesday, militant football fans have already started conflicts.

In a fit of blind rage, Panathinaikos football hooligans attacked celebrity sports journalist Babis Christoglou from SPOR-FM. The journalist was attended a function at the Caravel hotel, however a mob of Panathinaikos supporters waited for him outside on the eve of the big Panathinaikos vs. Olympiacos basketball match taking place at the Peace and Friendship Stadium on Thursday.

British police said March 2 they had launched an investigation into reports of racist behaviour by Chelsea fans, weeks after their supporters were filmed blocking a black man from boarding a Paris Metro train.
      

Egypt said on Feb. 25 its premier football league, suspended after a deadly stampede and clashes at a Cairo stadium, will resume but no fans will be allowed to attend.
      
The government suspended the league after 19 people were killed on February 8 when police fired tear gas and birdshot at fans trying to force their way into the stadium, leading to a stampede.
      

A black French man pushed off a Paris metro train and racially abused by Chelsea supporters on Feb. 18 made a criminal complaint to police and demanded that the fans be punished.
      
"These people, these English supporters, must be found, punished and locked up," the victim of the widely condemned assault told Le Parisien newspaper.