West Germany "A Disgrace to Civilized Society"

By J.D. Reed

On the field, the English national team played bravely and well against Holland before being eliminated, by a score of 3-1, from the European Championship soccer tournament in West Germany last week. Outside Dusseldorf's Rheinstadion, however, England suffered a shameful defeat -- at the fists and feet of its own unruly fans. After a weeklong rampage through four West German cities, about 250 English hooligans -- some wearing T shirts reading INVASION OF GERMANY 1988, others with their faces painted in Union Jack colors -- had been detained for drunkenness, looting and fighting. One Irish fan died, drowning in Frankfurt's Main River apparently while intoxicated. The rowdies left a trail of destruction that included dozens injured and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of property damage. Outraged, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told the House of Commons, "The scenes that we have seen on our television screens are a disgrace to civilized society and make us feel ashamed that any of our people were involved in them."

For anyone who has watched the behavior of some English fans over the years, last week came as no surprise. English soccer clubs have been banned from the Continent since 1985 by the Union of European Football Associations (U.E.F.A.) following one of the most horrific episodes in soccer history. Three years ago, Liverpool fans attacked Italian boosters during a game against Turin's Juventus club in Brussels. In the stampede to get out of the thugs' way, 39 people died and some 450 were injured.

British authorities subsequently clamped down at home by banning alcohol sales in stadiums and installing closed-circuit TV monitors and metal detectors. No use: the rowdy element among the fans -- mostly young men who labor in manual trades -- kept up its nasty ways in incidents around England.

British and West German officials began exchanging information on the most violent offenders months ago in preparation for last week's eight-nation tournament. After the first match between England and Ireland in Stuttgart on June 12, which Ireland won 1-0, some 20 English thugs beat up a 22-year-old Egyptian resident, slicing him with a broken bottle. Before the evening ended, 107 people, most of them English, had been detained by police for drunkenness and fighting.

Next day the hooligans migrated north for the game in Dusseldorf. One contingent stopped long enough in Cologne to do some serious drinking, smash windows and beat up a few citizens. Twenty-two Englishmen were jailed. Meantime, throngs of rowdies roamed through Dusseldorf's cavernous main railroad station, drinking and gearing up for the game. When a trainload of German fans arrived, the station quickly became a battleground of fistfights and splintered chairs. Miraculously, there were no serious injuries, but 130 were arrested, about 90 of them English. This time, said Dusseldorf Police Chief Hans Lisken, "the English were not the instigators. The Germans started it."

On Friday in Frankfurt, site of England's consolation game with the Soviet Union, the tireless roughnecks caroused in the city's red-light district, despite 1,400 patrolling policemen. It was an altogether repugnant show. As a bleary-eyed fan wearing a Union Jack T shirt said, "We'll never be in Europe again. Not even our own government will recommend us."

True enough. By midweek Thatcher, Sports Minister Colin Moynihan and other Cabinet ministers had drawn up a five point proposal. Among the suggestions: travel restrictions on convicted hooligans, further clampdowns on admission to matches at home, and the withdrawal of English national teams from Continental ) play, perhaps even from the 1990 World Cup in Rome. For its part the U.E.F.A. announced last week that the club competition ban against England would continue. The louts had bashed any argument that might have been made to end the proscription.

With reporting by James Graff/Dusseldorf and Peter Shaw/London