:: Soccer Hooligan Watch ::

[Eamonnca1]

Welcome to Soccer Hooligan Watch.  We begin with trouble at West Ham when police were called following reports of disturbances arising from a player's refusal to sign an autograph.

16 May 2011 Last updated at 19:52 ET

Police were called to reports of trouble involving West Ham players and supporters at a top London hotel.

The club, which was relegated from the Premier League on Sunday, held its end of season dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane.

Trouble is thought to have broken out at Monday evening's £275-a-head event when a player refused to sign an autograph for a supporter.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said no arrests were made.

He said: "We were called at 2115 BST to reports of a disturbance at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane.

"Officers attended. There were no offences alleged and no arrests."

A spokeswoman for the club denied there had been any trouble.

West Ham's relegation to the Championship was confirmed with a 3-2 defeat at fellow strugglers Wigan Athletic.

Just over an hour after the match, the club's owners confirmed they had sacked manager Avram Grant.

Polish police have been called in to crack down on hooligans in the wake of Poland's cup final a few weeks ago.

Polish police crack down on football hooligans
(AFP) – 6 days ago

WARSAW — Polish police Tuesday announced they had arrested 21 people in a crackdown on football hooligans, in the wake of trouble that marred the Euro 2012 host nation's cup final last week.

"They were identified thanks to surveillance recordings. The evidence has enabled them to be charged with destruction of property, invading the pitch and attacking security forces, including the police," Poland's police chief Andrzej Matejuk was quoted as saying by the national news agency PAP.

Police said that more arrests were on the cards, because they had identified 70 individuals involved in the cup final fracas in the northern city of Bydgoszcz on May 3.

The game pitted high-flying sides Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw. After it ended 1-1, Legia went on to win 5-4 on penalties and supporters of both sides invaded the pitch, forcing the police to step in.

They also smashed up seats and other stadium equipment.

There is no love lost between fans from the western city of Poznan and those from the Polish capital Warsaw, and hardcore supporters of both Lech and Legia have earned a reputation for making trouble.

After the cup final trouble, Polish authorities ordered Lech and Legia to play their next home matches in empty grounds.
That sparked a street protest by some 3,000 Legia fans outside their stadium on Friday, some of whom wore masks and threatened television crews and news photographers. Inside, Legia beat league stragglers Korona Kielce 3-1.
Lech fans also tasted victory at a distance, as the Poznan side beat mid-table Gornik Zabrze 2-0 on Saturday.
Putting aside often bitter rivalries, fans of clubs across the Polish league also held match-day protests over the weekend.
They targeted centre-right Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- an ardent football supporter -- whose government has pledged to get tough with hooligans ahead of next year's European Championships which Poland will host with neighbouring Ukraine.
Even those at Lechia Gdansk, the club the premier supports, refused to take their seats and unfurled a banner reading: "Stand closed at the request of Donald Tusk".

Since the demise of Poland's communist regime in 1989, some fans here have formed groups that worship England's once-notorious hooligan "firms".

Rival clubs' hooligans organise "ustawki", or pre-arranged fights.

They also have clout inside football grounds, sometimes using boycotts to force clubs to climb down when individuals are hit by hooliganism-related stadium bans.

In addition, members of some hooligan gangs have been charged for crossing into mainstream crime such as drug-trafficking and racketeering.

Last month, the government announced a new legal crackdown, with a raft of measures to be in place in time for the Euro 2012.

A key plank is fast-track handling of troublemakers, with special rooms being set up in stadiums with video links to courthouses from which judges will try the defendants.

In addition, hooligans who have already been banned from Poland's stadiums face electronic tagging.

Around 1,800 people are currently serving hooliganism-related stadium bans in Poland, a nation of 38 million. They will be jailed right away if they breach their tag conditions.

That'll learn 'em.

[Eamonnca1]

Welcome to the latest edition of Soccer Hooligan Watch. Are there no depths to which these animals will stoop? Killing a rival fan? In what other sport would such depravity exist? I'm glad we're so much more civilised than that in the GAA.

Soccer fan in Colombia gets 33-year sentence for killing rival supporter in hooligan brawl

By Associated Press, Published: May 13

BOGOTA, Colombia — A soccer fan who stabbed a rival supporter to death during a battle between opposing hooligan groups has received a 33-year prison sentence.

The sentence by a Bogota court Friday is the most severe punishment ever handed down for hooligan violence in Colombia.

Miguel Angel Osorio was accused of stabbing Jeider Johan Fonseca during a brawl in a Bogota cafe between rival groups from the Santa Fe and Millionarios clubs in September 2009.

Although Osorio was tried under existing statutes, the sentence coincides with the recent approval of a "soccer law" that cracks down on soccer-related violence.

Brawls between hooligan groups are common in Colombia, often taking place far from stadiums and even when there is no match being played.