Combating sports violence together
Over the past 10 years Serbia has witnessed a significant increase in sports violence. In the process of EU accession, numerous tasks have been set before Serbian officials – and Sport is close to the hearts of many.
The government of Serbia is expected to meet a set of legislative and security measures, strengthening the social, economic and organizational dimensions of sport. And improving education of police officers in combating hooliganism is an important component of the EU accession process.
Football hooliganism
In 2010, when Serbian football fans rioted in Genoa, Italy, the match had to be stopped. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) fined Serbia has ordered the Football Association of Serbia (FSS) to refrain from ordering tickets for Serbian supporters for all the away matches of the Serbian team during the remainder of the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying competition. The association was also fined a total of 120,000 Euros. Both international and national public debated a lot why this is happening and how it can be prevented, not only in Serbia, but the region as well.
The Serbia versus Albania recent match turned into a big fight, which not only endangered people’s lived, but also jeopardized diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
Sports vs Violence
The problem of sport violence continues to persist in Serbia and the region. The sports arenas have been turned into places where young people express their anger and frustrations. A little spark can make a flame.
Lately, the violence has been taken out of the sports arenas to the streets, openly demonstrating homophobia, xenophobia and racism.
Internationally there is wide experience in tackling hooliganism and improving safety at sports events and Serbia is finding its own.
The first step towards the successful tackling of the problem of hooliganism is to assert the structure of hooligans participating in violent outbursts, so that future programs could be adapted to the age and needs of concrete groups. That way the preventive work of the police could be directed more towards the root causes of the problem, rather than just dealing with consequences.
William Lawrie, Community Policing Progam Manager, OSCE Mission to Serbia
Serbian police is developing proactive preventive policing practices. The Mission supported a survey throughout a number of secondary schools in Serbia on the topic of hooliganism and awareness of the problem.
Young people today - fans tomorrow
Attempting to help Serbian police in developing proactive practices, the Mission also supported a number of preventive actions by the Police working at the local level with the youth trying to engage them and show them the positive side of sports.
“Another way of supporting the Serbian Police is by sharing best international practices” said OSCE Mission to Serbia Community Policing Progam Manager William Lawrie. The Mission will organize an international conference on 17/18 November 2014, where representatives of UK, Swedish and Italian Police Services will share their experiences in tackling sports related violence with the representatives of the Serbian Police, football clubs and the Football Association of Serbia.
“Serbia is developing its own solutions to problems but the experience of others may also be useful”, said Lawrie. “I have been particularly impressed with some of the proactive work done so far – the work that promotes the benefits of positive behavior in sport to young people. The young people of today are the fans of tomorrow.”