The first football match I saw was in the mid-seventies, in Kfar-Saba.
The great Maccabi Tel Aviv arrived at the old field, to meet the local Hapoel there. I don't remember anything about the event, except for the fight that took place behind me. Two adults exchanged punches, blood flowed, and a policeman came to try to separate them. I returned home terrified, I promised myself that this would be the last time, and that in years Next I will concentrate on modern ballet and fine mechanics.
Of course, since then I have been to the courts hundreds of times.
And as we have developed as a country, violence today also brings respect to those involved in the craft.
If once it was primitive and mixed between warm blood and sympathy, today it is organized as an example and has no room for mistakes.
Be sure that the flare display that destroyed a large part of the Tel Aviv derby this week, is not an event that two children organized after an action in the scouts.
It requires advance planning, smuggling, maybe even inside help.
People worked on it for days to make it work like clockwork.
This is violence built from leadership, soldiers, strategy.
The sympathy for the group is sometimes just a cover for the activity.
And where are the police?
Measured her behind, accompanied by the lack of hand of the courts.
They didn't do their part when the hooligans were little, and now it's too late.
We lost control.
Where do we hear that an official from the La Familia organization, a fan group that has uniforms and spokespeople, allows himself to come down during a Beitar Jerusalem training session to talk to the players, and why not? He was never arrested. So the guy warned that if they didn't start bringing results, the organization Will become their nightmare. An explicit threat, no filters.
I have known the Hapoel Tel Aviv fans since the days in Bloomfield when they were sitting on cold concrete. This is an intelligent, original crowd, which today turns its abilities to control battles with the management. They came all the way to CEO Odelia Friedman's house and scattered pieces of meat at the entrance, as a clarification that there is no red line that they will not cross.
The violence of the past has been replaced by organized street fights.
Planned encounters that only luckily do not end in fatalities.
To remind you: in 2018, the court sentenced a Beitar Jerusalem fan to ten years in prison for hitting a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan with a hammer in the head.
The courts are sometimes so forgiving.
More often than not, they settle for minor bans, politely asking the fan not to come to the stadium for a few months, because with all due respect, the prisons are full and it's all just a sport.
And that is the mistake.
The soft hand allowed violence to flourish.
And today there are flares in the stands, commanders and armored units.
Why would responsible parents send their children to the playground?
Let them see the game on TV.
In England, when the hooligans sought to dictate the agenda, it was a government decision to fight them.
A heavy hand from the police, severe punishment - and the fact that they almost disappeared.
Last Friday I was in London, at a top match in the second division between Queens Park Rangers and Reading.
The seller at the box office apologized that he only had tickets left for the back of the gate.
To a place like this in Bloomfield I would probably say "no thanks" and go home.
In London I didn't think twice.
I sat in the stands next to a father, his two sons and one of the brides, who was late because of a traffic jam.
We sang, we cursed a little, football after all, and we parted with a handshake, as a sporting, cultural event should be.
shishabat@israelhayom.co.il
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