Skirmish, taunts mar England-Argentina soccer match

Press, 24 June 1986, Page 10

Skirmish, taunts mar England-Argentina soccer match

NZPA-Reuter Mexico City English soccer fans yesterday hurled stones and bottles at Argentines celebrating their team’s 2-1 World Cup quarter-final win, causing a brief street battle which was broken up by a police charge.

A small number of fans from both sides were treated for cuts and bruises by ambulance crews, the police said. About a dozen were briefly detained. The skirmish began as about 75 Argentines were leaving Aztec Stadium, dancing to the beat of the big drum of the Boca. Juniors Club — the rallying point for stalwart fans during the match. A group of 15 to 20 England fans hiding under a bridge attacked the Argentines, some of whom wore T-shirts saying "The Falklands are Argentine.” The Argentines rolled up their banners and used the poles as lances, chasing their outnumbered attackers down the street.

The English group, stopping at times to pick up more stones, were saved by the arrival of more than 300 police who used truncheons to stop the Argentine charge. Security was tight dur-

ing the match. About 20,000 police, plainclothes agents and troops were posted in and around the stadium for fear of violence triggered by fans’ feelings about the 1982 British-Argentine war over the Falklands. A few scuffles in the stands were quickly stopped, but the bottle-and-stone attack apparently took the police by surprise. During the first half of the match, about 20 military police went to the terrace, where the Boca drum had rallied the Argentines after the burning of a paper Union Jack. “It was stupid,” Alonso Garcia, one of the fans with a Falklands T-shirts, said of the flag-burning. “We really came for the football.” The mood outside the stadium after the match was mainly conciliatory, in spite of the 20-minute battle.

Michael Andrews, aged 20, from the northern English town of Carlisle, was crying ahd hugging all the Argentines he could find as he left the match. “I cried when we lost. I cry now, but it’s only football after all,” he said, clutching a rolled-up

Union Jack. Andrews was among about 50 England fans dancing with Argentine supporters in a large crowd near the main gate of the Aztec Stadium as the other group, wearing Union Jack T-shirts, staged the ambush. Banners referring to Argentina’s claim to the South Atlantic islands hung from balconies throughout the match, and many of the chants exchanged by opposing supporters referred to the dispute. One banner reading “Exocet Lineker,” referring to the England striker, Gary Lineker, was removed by the authorities during the first half.

When Lineker scored England’s only goal, English fans on a terrace poured beer on a group of Argentines below. Several scuffles broke out during the match, and beer was thrown freely, but the police said there were no arrests.

Celebrating their victory, Argentine fans sang “Vamos, Vamos Argentina” (Argentina, Let’s Go), but some taunted the English — many visibly exhausted by the sun and beer — with Falklands chants.