I have been in Europe during one of the many running soccer fevers, trying to get on a train with drunken slugs of German fans, Spanish fans, English fans … the list goes on. These are not just people who find the game interesting or exciting; their lives revolve around only one team, its players and stars and the utter destruction of the opposing teams, whoever they might be. Many of these characters don’t have jobs. They simply travel the rails in search of the game, the booze and victims to terrorize along the way. I would love to see the reaction of all the prim soccer fans in the U.S. to seeing a train load of drunken Germans heading for France to “Kill the competition!” I think some of those small children might decide soccer is not the sport of choice and returning to baseball, tennis and backyard football is the civilized choice.

Perhaps the thing that bothered me more than the focus of fans on only the game and destroying the competition, was the total lack of any concern for what was happening in the world outside of soccer. Global warming, or the lack thereof, Somali pirates, starvation in Darfur, earthquakes everywhere or Joran Van der Sloot running around the world allegedly killing people. These things mean absolutely nothing in the minds of drunken fans. As one of my colleagues said, “They are the future of the world!” Well, I guess I respond with, “Good luck world!”

Soccer has come to dominate the sports world and our future generations of young athletes. Munn Field has given way to nets upon nets spreading themselves across the landscape. The good old game of softball has to be careful not to infringe upon all those soccer guys running around leaping on each other. In South Africa, one has to bear the joy of losing one’s hearing as the sound of the vuvuzelas moves across the countryside like a wave of killer bees.

Here is the perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black: European fans attending the World Cup or watching on television are complaining about the noise produced by “the riff raff in the upper decks.” The characters who riot across Europe and England after what they consider bad calls on the field or losses to arch-rivals have the gall to complain about noise that has always been a part of the excitement of South African soccer. Perhaps it was put best by an unnamed writer on deadspin.com, “Why can’t South Africans enjoy soccer like normal folks — with racist songs and flare guns!” Quite a statement that hits to the core of what soccer has been across the globe: a sport that suffers because of the fans that it attracts.

Soccer never has been a genteel sport. It has been filled with drunken hooligans breaking windows and rioting after matches. Many of the fans can’t make out whoever happens to be on the field. Soccer fans remind me of my undergraduate years when a drunken creature made it into Spartan Stadium and sat before the game swearing at the top of his lungs against Minnesota. We finally told him that we were playing Illinois and he got up and left.

Nothing is going to change as long as soccer is a world sport for masses of characters who find that brutality, prejudice and a total lack of regard for humankind is the prime focus. If we could get rid of these characters, then maybe soccer could be a quality world sport.

Craig Gunn is a State News guest columnist. Reach him at gunn@egr.msu.edu.