On Friday, a Paris Saint-Germain fan in Gabon killed his friend after being frustrated by the incessant mocking in lieu of his side’s 6-1 defeat to Barcelona in the round of -16 Champions League clash, reported AFP.
The duo got into a feud over post-match drinks and the 18-year-old stabbed his friend in the neck after the match on Wednesday in Libreville.
The intoxicated man could not take it as his friend kept teasing him over the humiliating loss to Barcelona in the second-leg of the competition and killed him on the spot. A judicial source confirmed that the mockery was at the root of the killing.
Of late, this sadly seems to have become a regular occurrence. Earlier this week, a man was killed after he got into an argument with his friend over whether Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo was the best footballer in the world. The incident occurred in Mumbai after the duo got talking about football after a party.
Football fans seems to be taking their devotion towards a particular game or team to an extreme level.
At a La Liga game last month, Alaves fans ended up getting into a brawl with Barcelona fans. In November last year, football across Uruguay was suspended after a man was shot by rival supporters. The 21-year-old was celebrating his club Penarol’s 125th anniversary when fans of the rival team Nacional shot the man while attempting to steal their scarves. The Uruguay FA suspended all ties for two days.
There is a big difference between being passionate about a club and being obsessed with one. If things continue to accelerate along this path, the game will find itself in a downward spiral that it may not be able to get out of.
Fans need to know when to draw the line. They need to realise that they not only end up hurting themselves but also the game that they love so much.
