You really have to wonder about a nation that has totally ignored the extreme violence surrounding football (soccer) to the point where the rivalry between the supporters of various teams is so intense that they kill each other.
Huge battles between "torcidas organizadas" (so-called fan clubs) break out in the stadiums and others are scheduled on the internet following matches. Rarely a game is played anywhere in Brazil that people aren't injured and many times killed. Actually calling them "fan clubs" is truly a joke since everyone here knows that they are thinly veiled facades for organized crime groups, many of them dealing in drug trafficking and other serious crimes. We see that on the news all the time so it's no secret.
This Sunday's match between the Corinthians and Palmeiras will be no exception, dispite the heavy security scheme that has been put in place. CPTM, São Paulo's commuter train system, will have segregated trains reserved ONLY for Palmeiras fans and they will be under police escort. There will be an increased police presence both in and around the "Itaqueirão" Stadium where the match will take place and inside the stadium itself fans for each team will be separated by huge aluminum walls erected to help prevent the inevitable mayhem.
So, that begs the question that I'd like the lawmakers of this nation to answer, if they can.
Is football a sport or is it war? If it truly is a sport then when the Hell are you guys in the Senate and Congress going to get off your collective butts and do something about the "war crimes" that take place every time there's a match in this nation????? Or is it OK to kill and maim people in Brazil simply because they don't root for YOUR favorite team? How many more Brazilian mothers will lose their sons or Brazilian wives lose their husbands before something substantial gets done about this problem?
For those members fluent in Portuguese interested in this huge and costly security scheme see the G1 article about it HERE
Is it sport or war? Makes me wonder.
Darwin had a theory about this.
You're absolutely right on that point Hailey, but I think he forgot to mention that the Theory of Evolution also works in reverse and football fans in Brazil are living proof of that. 
That gives me food for thought, William. And it has to do with the Missing Link. Maybe we found it.
In Brazil. 
Didn't have to search to darned hard, it's been around here and in the wide open for a Hell of a long time!!! Sad to say.
LOL. I hear ya. And I'm laughing, but it IS sad, I agree, when the whole POINT of "sports" is completely LOST on the "fans."
Well it appears that the extraordinary security scheme mounted by police for yesterday's match between Corinthians and Palmeiras in São Paulo's Itaquerão Stadium prevented major fights that resulted in injuries or loss of life. It did not however prevent the acts of vandalism in the stadium. Hundreds and hundreds of seats were destroyed by these bandits who call themselves fans.
I think that it's high time that the Brazilian government simply bans fans in all stadiums for all football matches for a specified period of time as a strong signal that this will no longer be tolerated. Send them the message that unless and until these hooligans can control themselves there beloved teams will compete against each other with empty bleachers.
Best to perhaps get rid of the seats and just put in concrete steps to sit on.
Problem is that even that doesn't reduce the violence here, it's been done in lots of places. Imagine this, in one stadium they rip out all the bathroom fixtures every single game, destroy the bathrooms completely. Recently a young man walking by the front of the stadium was killed when a so-called fan (vandal) tossed a toilet from 30 ft. above striking him on the head. To my way of thinking, knowing this happens all the time the answer is quite simple, no bathrooms, end of story! If you're there to watch a match in the future and nature calls, leave the stadium and find a bush to squat behind!
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