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Fans going too far
West Ham’s recent meeting with Burnley descended into farce, with multiple fans invading the pitch during the game and numerous more supporters turning their backs on the action to protest against the owners’ running of the club.
The Hammers hierarchy have since issued lifetime bans to five supporters involved in the disturbances, but this was just the latest example of football fans going too far…
9. Brazilian fan fires at will
A feisty clash between Brazilian giants Botafogo and Fluminese ended abruptly in 1957 when, having seen his side miss several chances to score, a fuming Botafogo supporter jumped over the fence, grabbed the ball which had gone out of play and proceeded to pump it full of bullets from his revolver.
The reason? “I thought it was time to prove that at least someone connected with Botafogo could shoot properly,” he huffed. It’s the ball we feel sorry for.
8. “Let me at the World Cup”
He’d already thrown a Barcelona flag at Luis Figo in protest at the Portugal skipper’s defection to Real Madrid at Euro 2004, but Spanish prankster Jimmy Jump’s most famous moment arrived during the 2010 World Cup.
He waited until the final before reintroducing himself to the worldwide football audience, racing onto the field in an “Against Racism” t-shirt and tried to place a Barretina hat onto the trophy. He was unsuccessful, though, and was taken out in magnificent fashion by an alert bouncer.
7. Aliens aren’t among us
Just why did groups of distinctly other-worldly-looking fans, clad in black cloaks with circle insignia, start turning up at European games in 2014?
Their bizarre presence, plus a ‘meteor’ falling on Hackney Marshes inscribed with #WinnerTakesEarth, even prompted Franz Beckenbauer to proclaim the ghoulish fans from another planet, an alien invasion supposedly imminent. We were all disappointed to find out it was actually an annoying Samsung ‘viral’ campaign ahead of the Brazil World Cup.
6. Flying in the face of the law
League One Stevenage had just knocked Newcastle out of the FA Cup in January 2011, so there was naturally only one way for supporter Robert Fitzgerald to celebrate: storming the pitch and punching home-team defender Scott Laird in the face on live television.
There was, in fairness, more to the story than initially met the eye. It transpired that Laird had previously gone out with Fitzgerald’s girlfriend and Stevenage magistrates were later told he “didn’t treat her correctly”.
That didn’t get Fitzgerald off the hook, though, with the 24-year-old jailed for 12 weeks and banned from all football stadiums for six years.
5. Let him entertain you
Anxious to register his displeasure about Port Vale’s performances during the 2001-02 campaign, one fan decided to take the law into his own hands by jumping on his bike and riding around the perimeter of the training ground, hurling abuse at his team.
The irked Vale players drop-kicked balls to try to dislodge him from his perimeter-perambulating push-iron, but the intruder kept them at arm’s length. “Robbie Williams could do a better job than you losers,” was one of his choicest insults.
4. Base and tremble
In 2003, Swaziland scraped a disappointing draw in a World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde. As the squad prepared to leave the ground on their team coach, a group of fans armed with baseball bats surrounded the bus and made their dissatisfaction known.
The players promptly hopped off to confront the furious gaggle of supporters and pulled out their own array of weapons, before police quickly dispersed them. “We wouldn’t have used the bats – we just wanted to make a point,” claimed one fan. Of course they did.
3. “Bring out your rats!”
When Honduras travelled to neighbouring arch-rivals El Salvador for the second leg of a fractious 1970 World Cup qualifier, their government having recently enacted laws to expel immigrant Salvadoran workers, they knew trouble was possible – hence the decision to arrive at the team hotel with an army escort.
They initially avoided any skirmishes, at least until a barrage of rocks smashed the hotel’s windows at midnight, a shock which was followed by a volley of dead rats soon after. The home side won the second leg but a replay was required, 11 days later; 18 days after that, the countries were literally at war as El Salvador invaded Honduras.
2. Roberto goes bananas
When Corinthians fans get angry at their team’s poor performances, questionable tactics and dull style of play, they don’t simply hold up an A4 piece of paper. One supporter took an altogether more drastic step in 2003, clambering up a tree and living there for a week.
The man, identified only as Roberto, armed himself with a bag of bananas and tied himself to the trunk, insisting he wouldn’t come down until the team played more attractive football.
"The players kept sticking their fingers up at me,” moaned Roberto, who retaliated with discarded banana skins.
1. Pele: not the king of betting
“We’re going to demonstrate outside Pele’s house, put placards up and keep him awake at night,” insisted concerned Colombia supporters ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Why were they so concerned? There were rumours that the Brazilian legend – commonly regarded as football’s anti-Nostradamus – was about to name Los Cafeteros as one of his World Cup favourites.
“Look what happened when he tipped us to win in 1994,” wailed a spokesman, recalling Colombia’s group-stage exit which later led to the tragic death of Andres Escobar. “We could do without that kind of drama.”
