Rioting in the streets after a world cup game: I don’t want to pick up the bill

Here’s another one: I watched Germany… then fled as gunshots rang out which shows how dangerous international football is getting.   It is not like this when Arsenal play Tottenham, no matter what we think of each other.

Meanwhile, the Guardian is leading its football news with “World Cup 2026: ‘violent disorder’ in London after France’s win over Morocco, Spain v Belgium buildup – live”.  They also have “Girl dies in France celebrating World Cup win.”   All of these headlines not only show how dangerous this World Cup is becoming, but also the level of damage being done as a result of a set of games played on another continent.

And that is before we get to “World Cup 2026: ‘violent disorder’ in London after France’s win over Morocco, Spain v Belgium buildup – live”.   The implication being that one can only follow the violence by following the newspaper, which then implies that those reporting the affray should help pay for the cleanup.

These headlines show that the media love “violent disorder” stories.   Also that the World Cup is associated with disorder on the streets – it is happening this year, and it has happened in the past.   Third, that the officials in charge of law and order always seem to be taken by surprise.  Fourth, that the outbreaks of disorder have less to do with where the game is being played and which countries are involved but a lot to do with the fact that it is associated with the World Cup.

So what’s the solution?   One idea is to have a very heavy police presence on the streets around city centres where there are sizeable numbers of people from the country/ies that are playing.   One problem is, someone has to pay for that, and no one wants to, but it might encourage cities to refuse to allow the WC in their area.

The other is to have nothing to do with the World Cup at all and order a curfew when a World Cup match is played involving any country whose supporters have been involved in disorder before.

Now normally I am not in favour of this sort of action, which reduces people’s freedom to move about their own city, but this does seem to be going too far, so what we could do is this…   Instruct Fifa and Uefa that they have to sign legal agreements that they will pay for policing and damage to property which occurs in any city in England before, during and after each world cup game.  If they won’t agree to this condition, then quite simply England (or any other British qualifying nation) pulls out of the competition.

Then a second control is imposed on whichever TV station decides to broadcast the match.   If after such a match there is disorder, then the TV company has to pay for the costs of repair and the hospital bills.

Now this might seem a bit draconian, but given that we have little football related violence in England before or after PL games, and do not have enough police officers on the streets of England to maintain law and order, and given that the organisers of the world cup absolutely refuse to take responsiblilty for the consequences of their actions, it is difficult to think of what else to do.

Each participating country can be asked politely to pick up the bill for additional policing and for damage to property during and in the aftermath of a World Cup match involving the players representing that country.   So if France plays a match, and there is damage to property after the game, the French government has to pick up the bill.

Of course they might not like it, but it gives them a choice – either take responsibility for your citizens’ behaviour during and after a World Cup match, or don’t send a team representing your country to the World Cup.   That gives every country a choice.

As a taxpayer in England, I don’t see why I should pick up part of the bill for any problems caused in this country as a result of people from another nation rioting after having seen a match involving their country on TV.   That does seem to me to be awfully unfair.

Of course I am quite happy to listen to other ways of spreading the cost of disorder following a football match, so all suggestions welcome as long as I, a person who doesn’t watch WC games, won’t have to pay.  But for the moment it seems that if a riot happens in England during or following a football match which does not involve England, I will find my tax bill rising in order to pay for the extra police and the clean-up job, and that seems unfair.