Burma Receives a Red Card

The initial club owners included MFF chairman Zaw Zaw, who oversees the Burmese men's national team, the women's national team and the youth national teams—and whose public address system plea on Thursday for fans to stop throwing objects on the pitch was completely ignored.

As a result of Than Shwe’s decree and his business cronies’ complicity, the “Myanmar Premier League” was launched on May 16, 2009, and the Burmese people suddenly had an outlet to shout and swear and vent their feelings and anger in a country where there is little room to do so because the military government rules with an iron fist and discourages almost all public expressions of dissatisfaction.

Predictably, tempers sometimes exploded in the stands—a precursor to what happened at the World Cup Qualifying Match that was not paid enough heed. This kind of anti-social behavior can be seen almost everywhere the sport is played, and you don't have to be sociologist to understand that football hooliganism is a reflection of the violence and divisions prevalent in any society.

It is therefore needless to say that sporting authorities and governments in every country must implement necessary safety and security standards and legislation to combat hooligan activities—and even terrorist threats. So post-event declarations by MFF officials that 300-400 fans will be charged using police photographs taken at the scene is way too little, way too late.

The only way for Burma to salvage its sporting image and put this incident behind is for Zaw Zaw and his MFF, along with the government’s Ministry of Sports, to accept responsibility for what happened at Thursday’s match and take all proper precautions to convince the world it will not happen again.

These corrective and preventative measures must be taken well ahead of the 2013 South East Asian Games, commonly known as the SEA Games, which Burma will host.

Burma is certainly not the first country to be embarrassed by its sports fans. Just like in other football-crazy countries, in Burma there is a very thin line between arousal of nationalistic passions and violence, and after Thursday’s debacle, we know for certain that football hooliganism is not an exclusively “English Disease.”

After almost half a century of military rule, Burma is 167th—three places below Afghanistan—in the FIFA world football rankings. If we want to improve both our rankings and our tarnished image, everyone will have to participate—from the top down.