LONDON (AP) - A prosecutor says English soccer authorities have failed to act against criminal behavior on the playing field.
Speaking at a conference Friday on "crime in sport," London-based prosecutor Nazir Afzal criticized the country's professional game. He likened it to "many communities who fail to acknowledge crimes that occur within them."
"They prefer silence to dialogue, and it would appear to me that the football community is like one of those communities," Afzal said. "It is not about men behaving badly. For us, it about men behaving criminally."
The highest profile case of on-pitch violence this season came April 2 when Newcastle teammates Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer traded punches during a home game. Prosecutors are expected to rule next week if they will face criminal charges.
Bowyer was banned for four games and fined about 200,000 pounds (US$360,000; €300,000) by soccer officials. Dyer received a three-match ban.
Afzal said violence on the pitch seldom leads to jail time. In a rare case, Everton striker Duncan Ferguson was jailed for three months in 1995 for head-butting an opponent while playing for Glasgow Ranger. English Premier League referee Barry Knight was declined permission to attend the conference by Keith Hackett, who heads the group that oversees England's top game officials. The conference was organized by the Crown Prosecution Service, or public prosecutor's office.
Gordon Taylor, who heads the soccer players' union, defended the game's authorities and cited the case of Bowyer and Dyer.
"If they'd been apprehended outside the nightclub, they might not even have been arrested," Taylor said. "If they had been, they may well have been held overnight and fined 50 pounds in the morning."
Despite the impression that fan violence has declined in the English game, Afzal said a large police presence was needed to keep it in check. "A lot of people believe that hooliganism has been subdued, but they are wrong," he said. "It takes thousands of police officers every weekend to give that impression."
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Speaking at a conference Friday on "crime in sport," London-based prosecutor Nazir Afzal criticized the country's professional game. He likened it to "many communities who fail to acknowledge crimes that occur within them."
"They prefer silence to dialogue, and it would appear to me that the football community is like one of those communities," Afzal said. "It is not about men behaving badly. For us, it about men behaving criminally."
The highest profile case of on-pitch violence this season came April 2 when Newcastle teammates Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer traded punches during a home game. Prosecutors are expected to rule next week if they will face criminal charges.
Bowyer was banned for four games and fined about 200,000 pounds (US$360,000; €300,000) by soccer officials. Dyer received a three-match ban.
Afzal said violence on the pitch seldom leads to jail time. In a rare case, Everton striker Duncan Ferguson was jailed for three months in 1995 for head-butting an opponent while playing for Glasgow Ranger. English Premier League referee Barry Knight was declined permission to attend the conference by Keith Hackett, who heads the group that oversees England's top game officials. The conference was organized by the Crown Prosecution Service, or public prosecutor's office.
Gordon Taylor, who heads the soccer players' union, defended the game's authorities and cited the case of Bowyer and Dyer.
"If they'd been apprehended outside the nightclub, they might not even have been arrested," Taylor said. "If they had been, they may well have been held overnight and fined 50 pounds in the morning."
Despite the impression that fan violence has declined in the English game, Afzal said a large police presence was needed to keep it in check. "A lot of people believe that hooliganism has been subdued, but they are wrong," he said. "It takes thousands of police officers every weekend to give that impression."
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