• After soccer melee, Egypt learns tough lesson: sharing blame

    Police react as chaos erupts at a soccer stadium in Port Said, Egypt on Wednesday.

    By Ayman Mohyeldin , NBC News correspondent

    News Analysis

    CAIRO – Tragedy. Conspiracy. Massacre.

    However you decide to describe Wednesday's deadly melee at an Egyptian soccer game that left 74 dead, one thing is for certain. It is being described as a blemish on Egypt and Egyptians.

    In merely a few hours, more Egyptians were killed than in any single day in Egypt's nascent revolution.

    The incident cuts across much deeper issues in a country where soccer and politics intersect at all levels of society and social classes. Wednesday's violence highlights shortcomings in the country's sporting culture, free-speech psychology and politics. It exposes mistrust that defines the transforming relationship between the state's security and its citizens: failing to define each other’s responsibility to the other. And it sheds light on the country's past, while offering a glimpse into its democratic future, where officials are held to account and the public also must hold itself responsible for violating its own set of values and morals.

    Those responsible for the violence at Wednesday’s game were Egyptians. Period.

    Now, they could have been instigated, motivated and, even more sinisterly, hired to carry out these attacks on each other.  But in the end, they were all fellow countrymen representing broader groups of society, whether they be pro-revolutionary, pro-military, remnants of the old regime or simply thugs. Today the country had to face up to that fact.

    At least 74 people were killed and hundreds more injured when rival soccer fans in Egypt rioted after a match. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo.

    Culture of insults
    I have been attending soccer games in Egypt since I was a little boy. I and the millions of other Egyptians who attend these games are always somewhat entertained by the verbal abuse leveled at officials, opposing teams' fans and their players. From derogatory chants to straight-up provocative curses, nothing is off limits at these games.

    And although I did not attend the game between Al Ahly and Al Masry on Wednesday, the run-up to the game and the chants heard during the game itself reflect a culture in which insults, taunting and provocation are not the exception, but the norm.

    Such a culture demeans the very sport. And in a country where tensions are already high, the notion that fans can demean each other along political lines reflects the growing fragmentation in Egypt's post-revolutionary transition. It was reported that Ahly fans repeatedly taunted the home crowds, unfurling insulting posters and accusing them of not supporting the populist revolution that "liberated the country.”

    Your soccer team is political statement
    At the forefront of sports and politics are the die-hard fans of prominent clubs like Al Ahly and Al Zamalek, known in Egypt as the Ultras. The very name Ultra is meant to connote the most extreme level of loyalty by the fans.

    Egypt's sporting clubs reflect complex layers of the country's past and current power structure. Al Ahly was founded by staunchly anti-British republicans. Al Zamalek drew its support from the country's colonial British administrators and their monarchist allies. Even Egypt's security apparatuses field top-flight teams from the army, police, military industry and border guards.

    Str / AP

    Egyptians sit on a sidewalk in front of the Al-Ahly sporting club in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday. A network of soccer fans known as Ultras vowed vengeance, accusing the police of intentionally letting rivals attack them because they have been at the forefront of protests over the past year, first against former leader Hosni Mubarak and now the military.

    Who you support makes a difference in Egypt. Why you support them matters even more. When teams reflect such historical and cultural differences, it’s not surprising to find tension and violence at sporting events. At a time when sport could be a healing and unifying factor in the country, it has emerged as divisive theater.

    In recent weeks, the Ultras of both Al Ahly and Al Zamalek have made reconciliatory efforts to each other. But it’s a small drop in the bucket following years of deep animosity. It was up to the moral conscience of the storming fans to realize that they were committing murder.

    In the absence of security or riot police and in the presence of instigators or saboteurs, where was the moral conscience of Egyptians at the stadium to realize that storming the field in celebration is one thing, committing murder with weapons is another? Have Egyptians become that immune to violence to no longer draw the line of distinction? Are they so easily manipulated to carry out such attacks by larger societal powers?

    Ultras Ahly carry even more political baggage, because they were at the forefront of 18-day street protests against the Mubarak regime and the military council that inherited power after the revolution. The Ultras Ahly have drawn on their past years of battle-hardened stadium experience with riot police in their ongoing confrontations with the military and the security forces. That has drawn them admiration and support from pro-revolutionary movements in the country for sustaining pressure on the military rulers despite "revolution fatigue" in some corridors of the country. It has also drawn anger from parts of the country that see sustained street protests as undermining the country's stability, democratic transition and economic recovery.

    Police complicit or just ill-prepared?
    But unlike in previous soccer-related violence, Wednesday's incident had a suspiciously high death toll. Despite the presence of security and riot police in visibly large numbers, the rampaging crowds were pretty much unhindered as they stormed the field. This has led many to question whether a sinister plot could have been tacitly in place to allow for such violence.

    Many speculate the military council and its backers gain by exploiting such acts of “chaos.” Others simply say that this is an example of the incompetence of poorly trained security forces that are incapable of dealing with large crowds without brute force.

    Mahmud Hams / AFP - Getty Images

    An Egyptian man cries as he joins others in prayer outside Al-Ahly club in Cairo on Thursday.

    I wonder what the public reaction would have been if police had used overwhelming force to subdue the on charging crowds and prevent the fan-on-fan violence. There surely would have been public outcry against the security forces for suppressing rowdy crowds.

    It’s a lose-lose situation for the security forces. Act and suppress the crowds, and the police will be condemned for cracking down on what would surely have been described as a "post-victory celebration.” Stand by and do nothing and they are accused of complicity in the killing of fans. Therein lays the dilemma that Egypt's security apparatus faces: a crisis of confidence and credibility. But above all just poor technical capabilities in crowd control.

    Even when the state is expected to uphold its responsibilities and preserve law and order it is handicapped by the lack of trust the general public has in those forces. Perhaps the police were ordered to avoid direct confrontation to precisely avoid the risk of injuring disorderly fan. Is there a solution where by the police are allowed to use force to subdue disorderly conduct that is disruptive to the public good. When and who gets to make the distinction between civil disobedience and free-speech protests where police are expected to keep a distance; and disorderly conduct where police must preserve law and order?

    New political theater
    Enter Egypt's new parliament. This trying experience has been baptism by fire for the new parliamentarians who spent the better part of Thursday debating what they as a body can and should do. As the only democratically elected state institution in the country, it has been among the most responsive so far.

    Members of parliament took to the airwaves on Wednesday evening condemning those responsible, while vowing to hold them responsible. On Thursday the entire body took up the matter. They summoned the prime minister and five other ministers to an emergency session to discuss the matter. Feeling the heat, the prime minister walked into the People's Assembly by saying the governor of Port Said had resigned and top security officials were suspended

    Parliamentarians did not hold back their criticism of the government's handling of the situation – they put the blame squarely on the military, its prime minister and the security forces for failing to preserve the public order. The proceedings happened live on television as millions of Egyptians and Arabs across the world watched hours of uninterrupted debate.

    In the end, it was decided that the minister of interior will be investigated for his handling of the situation, many called for his sacking.

    Nasser Nasser / AP

    Egyptian protesters fly their national flag and the flag of the Al-Ahly sporting club while they rally in solidarity and support for the club and chanting anti-ruling military council slogans on their way to Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt on Thursday.

    It was an example of a budding democratic body attempting to hold officials accountable. In the long run, it may prove to be fruitless, and the parliament may lose the zeal it demonstrated Thursday, but it does for now meet the immediate expectations of many citizens. How far the parliament can push its accountability will be tested in the coming days and weeks.

    But the violence in Wednesday's tragedy also teaches one more important lesson, as one Egyptian Ahly fan told me, "We as a country must learn to share the blame for what we do, not just simply get used to assigning blame.”

    Ayman Mohyeldin is an NBC News Correspondent currently based in Cairo, Egypt. He was born in Cairo and lived there until age 5. He spent a lot of timing visiting family there as a young adult and has been working on and off in Egypt since 2005 for CNN, Al Jazeera and now NBC News. He has attended both club and national soccer team games since he was a child.

  • Germans 'Pray for Japan'

    'Pray for Germany' was the headline on the cover of Germany's Bild newspaper on Sunday

    By Andy Eckardt, NBC News

    MAINZ, Germany – In Germany, football (or soccer) is often called the “greatest minor matter in the world.” On Saturday, which traditionally is the weekly game day in the country, Germany’s number one sport really became a minor matter with regard to the worrying news updates that were flocking in from Japan.
     
    On several occasions, the moderator of the top rated sports program “Sportschau” on public television ARD reminded viewers of the catastrophic situation in the Far East country. And, many of the after-game interviews with coaches or players were focused on questions about the status of friends and relatives in Japan instead of game results.
     
    “This is terrible; we could follow the whole drama of events through the pictures on TV. Especially the situation in the megacity Sendai affects me a lot, as I played for the Brummell team there,” said Wolfsburg coach Pierre Littbarski, a former German soccer star, who is married to a Japanese woman. 

    Makoto Hasebe (VFL Wolfsburg), Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund), Shinji Okasaki (VFB Stuttgart) – all well-known Japanese players, who are big stars in Germany’s top league, the Bundesliga, and favorites of many German soccer fans.
     
    “The good news first: Shinji Kagawa is in good health after the earthquake in Japan” read the headline on the official website of leading German soccer team Borussia Dortmund. A note of comfort for the team’s fans, as Kagawa is currently recuperating in Japan from a sports injury.
     
    With respect for their Japanese teammates and the Japanese people in general, most players wore a black “mourning band” around their arms during the matches and in many stadiums a minute of silence was observed before kick-off on Saturday.
     
    All eyes on Japan  
    “Pray for Japan” was the Sunday headline of Germany’s mass circulation BILD newspaper.

    Germany has a large Japanese community, one of the largest in Europe, and many were following updates from Japanese TV on the Internet all weekend.

    The biggest concentration of Japanese ex-pats can be found in Dusseldorf, where more than 8,200 Japanese alone have found a home. More than 490 Japanese companies are operating in this western German city, which is located on the banks of the Rhine River.

    Organizers of this year’s “Japan Week” – scheduled to take place from May 21-28 marking 150 years of German-Japanese friendship – say that they are not certain, if celebrations will now be able to take place as planned.
     
    Over the past few days, journalists and residents of the city have been rushing to Japanese restaurants, supermarkets and Japanese travel agents, asking their Japanese neighbors about the status of their families back home.
     
    “We are constantly updating our guests and our 45 Japanese employees with what we know from Japan, which is a lot and nothing” says Bertold Reul, the general manager of the Japanese hotel Nikko that has been operating in Dusseldorf for 33 years.

    "All of our flat screens at the hotel are tuned to German, English and Japanese channels that are carrying news from Japan," Reul told NBC News.

  • British soccer studs practice down-dog moves

    By NBC News' Miriam Firestone

    When most people hear the word yoga, they envision sweaty, skinny people on mats twisting their bodies around like human pretzels. Their feet are bare and they're breathing deep as they contort themselves into "downward dogs" and "sun salutations."
     
    So, it may come as a surprise to learn that one professional English soccer club is using yoga to improve flexibility, strength and stamina. They believe that it may hold the key not only to inner peace...but also to the higher leagues.
     
    NBC London's Miriam Firestone takes us inside a world once reserved for soccer moms that now includes soccer players.

  • Egypt suspends soccer league ... and that's important

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    Update 3:52 p.m. ET: U.S. Soccer, the sport's governing body in the United States, has announced that the Feb. 9 U.S. international match against Egypt in Cairo has been canceled "due to the current conditions in the country." 

    _____

    It might seem like a small point — who cares about sports when you're in the middle of a possible revolution? — but in a smart piece for Sports Illustrated, Dave Zirin explains why it was important for the Egyptian Soccer Federation to indefinitely suspend the soccer league: 

    Clearly this was a case of too little, too late. Even without games, the football fan associations have been front and center organizing everything from the neighborhood committees that have been providing security for residents, to direct confrontation with the state police. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian blogger said, "The ultras — have played a more significant role than any political group on the ground at this moment." Alaa then joked, "Maybe we should get the ultras to rule the country."

    The involvement of the clubs has signaled more than just the intervention of sports fans. The soccer clubs' entry into the political struggle also means the entry of the poor, the disenfranchised, and the mass of young people in Egypt for whom soccer was their only outlet.

    Although his blog is in Arabic, El Fattah is offering frequent observations in English on his Twitter feed. 

  • What a South African road taught me

    JOHANNESBURG – There was a dark mystique about the road to Rustenburg well before I even set foot on it.

    It's treacherous, I was warned by friends in Johannesburg. Wild animals wander on it at will, and crime – car-jacking, in particular – is rife. Don’t even think about driving after dark, and if you do, don't stop!

    Photo by EPA/KIM LUDBROOK

    South African fans enjoy the FIFA Fan Fest in Sandton during their group match against France in Johannesburg on June 22.

    A few days later, I was on that road in the middle of the night, after reporting on a late World Cup soccer match in Rustenburg. Hotels were full, and we had an early-morning appointment in Johannesburg, two to three hours away.

    I was navigating a rental car down dark and largely deserted roads with the help of a GPS, half expecting its monotonous tone to kick in with: "At the sight of a wildebeest, swerve left." Or, "When the gunman steps out, hand over your cash and car keys."

    Short on gas, I had to stop at a deserted garage. I could see the silhouettes of people moving inside the garage shop. I stepped nervously inside, and immediately felt like a complete fool.

    There was a party atmosphere among the staff, as they argued among themselves – then with us – about the soccer match, while sorting through early editions of newspapers plastered with World Cup images. One of them blasted a vuvuzela.

    It was four o'clock in the morning, and the World Cup party was still swinging on this lonely outpost on the Rustenburg road.

    Of course we got back safely to Johannesburg, and with hindsight, the paranoia about crime, like most of the other concerns over South Africa's ability to host a successful World Cup were overblown.

    Like most people who made the journey to South Africa, I'd heard about the country's horrendous crime and security problems, and had read predictions of open season on gullible soccer fans.

    In reality, there has been some crime, of course, mostly petty. But for the most part, the massive World Cup crime wave was a bigger non-event than the performances of the English or French soccer teams.

    Policing was beefed up, particularly in areas fans frequented, and special World Cup courts were set up to administer swift justice, though they've hardly been busy – less than 180 cases at the last count.

    There were plenty of naysayers ahead of the tournament, doubting South Africa's readiness or ability to stage the event.

    Instead it's been well run, a great party, with a very unique flavor and sound (those vuvuzelas!) of its own.

    Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/Getty Images

    Supporters of Spain play the vuvuzela at the end of the World Cup semi-final football match Germany vs. Spain on July 7 in Durban. Spain defeated Germany 1-0.

    And wither apartheid?
    I'd done plenty of homework before heading to South Africa, which left me wondering whether 16 years after the first multi-racial elections, the post-apartheid euphoria was wearing off? Racial inequality remains stark, corruption is rife, going to the heart of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). I wondered whether the dreams of the rainbow nation were beginning to fade.

    But there too I found encouragement on the road to Rustenburg, the world's platinum capital. The fast-growing city sits on enormous riches, but is surrounded by townships, some with only the most basic facilities.

    But close to the city's soccer stadium, on the outskirts of town, simple dwellings had been turned by their entrepreneurial owners into bars and cafes, packed with soccer fans, old young, black and white, some waiting for the game, others packed around television sets in crowded living rooms.

    A young white South African couple told me it was the first time they'd been into a township and eaten "township food."

    "The World Cup is really bringing South Africans together," they gushed.

    You heard that so often, it almost became a cliché. But it also appears to be true.

    One columnist in today's Mail & Guardian, a leading South African paper, said the World Club has brought a "social revolution." He said nobody expected the World Cup to trigger such "an outpouring of nationalistic fervor, or touch as many people from the country's many different race groups."

    And that's certainly the way it felt as we were immersed in a noisy, friendly and multi-racial exuberance – from shops and taxis to bars, restaurants and the vast fan zones set up to view the games.

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    There was another lesson, too, on that Rustenburg road.

    We'd spent an earlier night at a sprawling guest house, "just up the road." It turned out to be an hour and a half out of town, and was run by a white Afrikaner couple.

    They were perfectly polite, but just off their dining room they had built what can best be described as a shrine to apartheid. It included the old apartheid-era flag and a big portrait of Hendrik Verwoerd, the man often described as the "architect of apartheid."

    I was worried this would offend Gu Gu, our black South African coordinator, or our (black) driver Colin. Although I learned later that their biggest worry had been that it might offend me.

    It wasn't that they didn't care, they just found it rather quaint – and ultimately irrelevant.

    They were more amused than angry. They, and their South Africa, have moved on. And in their own way Gu Gu and Colin represented the confident new face of post-apartheid South Africa, that is increasingly asserting itself, proud that its children are growing up largely colorblind.

    There's speculation that Nelson Mandela, credited with bringing the World Cup to South Africa, may attend Sunday’s final. He wasn't able to be at the opening game because the tragic death in a car accident of his great granddaughter.

    For millions of South Africans, of all races, that would be a fairytale ending to a great World Cup.

    Nobody I met is minimizing the challenges facing South Africa, but for all that, there is an enormous desire to make post-apartheid South Africa work. And hosting the biggest sports event on the planet has enabled South Africans of all races and backgrounds to proclaim that loudly to the world.

    SLIDESHOW: Around the globe: Soccer fans react to the World Cup on TV

  • World Cup tensions runneth over

    Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images

    Wayne Rooney of England speaks to a cameraman as he walks off the field following his team's 0-0 tie with Algeria.

    From England to France to Spain, the pressure of playing the most popular sport in the world on its biggest stage apparently is taking its toll on some the best players and nations as the tournament enters only its second week.

    As reported by The Associated Press and Reuters:

    England
    Following the team’s surprisingly lackluster 0-0 tie with Algeria on Friday night, an English fan eluded security, invaded the team's changing room and fired off a derogatory insult at superstar David Beckham before walking out.

    Ten minutes earlier, British royals Princes William and Harry had been in the rooms visiting the players.

    "Luckily it was after the princes had left, 10 minutes after," said Beckham, the former England captain who is not playing as he rehabilitates from an Achilles tendon injury.

    "Obviously it has been blown out of proportion. The actual fan literally just walked in very casually and just said something to me and then walked out. There was no scuffle, there was no aggression at all. He didn't comment on the performance."

    During the game, English star Wayne Rooney – who has failed to score in seven straight games – blasted many of the 25,000 England fans who jeered the players, telling a TV camera, "It's nice to see your own fans booing you."

    Rooney later apologized for the outburst.

    English media have been even tougher on the team, which in its first match tied the United States 1-1 and now is in danger of not even reaching the next round despite being among the favorites to advance far into the tournament.

    The tabloid Sun, never a publication to pull its punches, let rip with a variation of a famous Winston Churchill quotation from World War II on its back page.

    "Never in the field of World Cup conflict has so little been offered by so few to so many," thundered its headline above a photograph of England's players shuffling off the pitch Friday after a performance in Cape Town that ruined World Cup parties across England.

    "Rooney in a rage ... his team in a stew," said Matt Dickinson in The Times. "No wonder you were booed off Rooney," added a headline in The Sun.

    "Toothless Three Lions limp to a bore draw ... and stand on brink of early exit" said the Daily Mail.

    "Woeful England at point of no return," said The Times which used a full page photo of midfielder Frank Lampard apparently biting his nails on the front page of its sports section with a headline stating: "Be afraid. Be very afraid"

    "Cape Fear" claimed The Sun's inside spread alongside a photograph of a raging coach Fabio Capello.

    The Daily Telegraph's sport section was headlined "Shambles" while the Guardian's choice of words summed up the mood of the majority of people who watched England on television, "No spark, no spirit, no hope" it said.

    The Daily Express simply screamed "Useless!" on its back page.

    France
    French star Nicolas Anelka was thrown off the team after getting into a heated exchange with coach Raymond Domenech and refusing to apologize.

    The Chelsea forward reportedly made obscene comments to Domenech at halftime of France's 2-0 loss to Mexico on Thursday.

    Anelka confirmed he had an argument with Domenech — but said that it was meant to stay within the team.

    "I indeed had a heated conversation with the coach, but it happened within the confines of the changing rooms, between the coach and me, in front of my teammates and the staff," Anelka told the website of France Soir newspaper. "That should never have come out of the changing rooms. I don't know who can benefit from that, but repeating these kind of things certainly doesn't help (the team)."

    The episode is another blow to a French team that made the World Cup finals in 2006 but is on the verge of being eliminated from the 2010 tournament after a listless draw with Uruguay and the Mexico loss.

    Spain
    Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas is not distracted by the on-field presence of his television presenter girlfriend and is fully focused on his job, according to teammate Raul Albiol.

    Casillas, who is in a relationship with Sara Carbonero, a Telecinco reporter covering the World Cup, was criticized for allowing Switzerland to score the only goal in Spain’s 1-0 loss on Wednesday.

    He had to explain himself in a live interview with Carbonero immediately after the match, and the defeat prompted a British newspaper to suggest her presence at games was a distraction for the Spain captain.

    In her video blog published on Friday (http://blogs.telecinco.es/elvideoblogdesaracarbonero/), Carbonero did not mention the controversy, instead focusing on Monday's match and predicting Spain would beat Honduras.

  • U.S. team: 'we're also ambassadors for our sport'

    Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    PRETORIA, South Africa – On our first day covering the U.S. soccer team training here, the NBC News team was greeted by two humorless Department of Diplomatic Security officers who told us to lay our camera equipment on the ground for an inspection by sniffer dogs.

    As the two German shepherds and their local police escorts went to work eagerly burrowing through our lined up gear, an enterprising photographer took the opportunity to get down on his knees to squeeze a couple shots of the dogs in action.

    Big mistake.

    One of the dogs quickly turned and started to snarl and growl at the surprised shooter, who fell flat on his rear as he beat a hasty retreat.

    Despite the tight security cordon, there was an unexpected calm at the training camp in the days leading up to the high-profile opener against England on Saturday.

    Set within Irene Farm, a working dairy farm in Pretoria, the team’s temporary World Cup home provides an informal setting that suits the team’s seemingly relaxed personality.

    However, the players for Team USA, currently ranked 14 in the world, are extremely aware of the high expectations that are unique to the American team.

    "We have a different responsibility in our country then most countries do," said Landon Donovan, the veteran mid-fielder and vice-captain of the team. "When we walk around the streets, people don’t always know who we are."

    He explained how the American players don’t have the same rock-star status as international superstars like Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

    "So our job is not only to play, but we're also ambassadors for our sport," said Donovan. "We’re trying to sell our sport and we understand very clear that every four years is our biggest opportunity to do that."

    Though arguably the star of the team, Donovan is convinced that team-oriented, selfless play will be key to any American success against the more glitzy, star-studded teams they may encounter.

    "Our biggest strength always has been our team," said Donovan. "There are no egos and everybody kind of sees this common goal…Everybody is in this together and that is sort of the American spirit and that’s what we’ve always brought."

    Donovan’s confidence is encouraging, but don’t expect it to carry over to dubious sports experts and insiders. Most bookies are offering a long 6-1 bet on a U.S. win.

    We’ll all have to wait and wonder until the two teams meet on the pitch on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm EST.

    U.S. fans also can follow the team on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ussoccer

  • Should fans fear British soccer hooligans?

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com staff

    LONDON – It was called "The English Disease." Wherever England soccer fans went, violence seemed to follow.

    During the Euro 2000 championships, an exchange of insults turned into a full-scale riot. Cameras captured the descent of a pleasant square in the Belgian city of Charleroi into a battleground of flying fists, bottles, cans and furniture countered by riot police and armored vehicles firing water cannons at so-called "hooligans."

    Photo by Phillippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

    British football fans shout at policemen June 17, 2000 a few hours before the Euro 2000 match between England and Germany in Charleroi. Ranks of riot police used water cannons in an effort to prevent fighting between England and German fans massed on opposite sides of the main Charles II square.

    One commentator, Hugo Young of Britain's Guardian newspaper, was moved at the time to lament how the English were "the experts in drunken violence, racist aggression, head-banging nationalism, copycat provocation, [and] serial thuggery." Hundreds were arrested before being deported on a specially chartered boat.

    So should American fans planning to attend Saturday's World Cup clash against England in Rustenburg, South Africa, fear for their safety? Or has England finally found a cure for the contagion of soccer violence?

    South African authorities ready
    "We're not anticipating significant disorder, but we're not complacent," was the almost-reassuring message from Nick Hawkins, of the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service. "There's always a small number of people who get carried away … they've had too much to drink and they just get it badly wrong. We don't seek to excuse that, but that is a fact."

    England introduced new laws in the aftermath of the Euro 2000 tournament, which Hawkins thinks have made a difference.

    Police now hold a list, currently containing 2,771 names, of those deemed to be hooligans. They were required to surrender their passports to the police by June 1 and they will only get them back once the tournament is over.

    The "vast majority" have done so, according to Bryan Drew, director of the U.K. Football Policing Unit. Authorities are now on the trail of those who have not. On Thursday, five people in Birmingham, England, were arrested and now face six months in prison if found guilty.

    "Where we cannot find them or their passports, we'll be sharing that information with the South Africans, so they will be there to welcome them when they come into their country," Drew said.

    He said the chance of trouble in Rustenburg was "negligible." But 10 members of Argentina’s notorious Barrabravas gang – likely enemies of English hooligans – showed that some intent on violence are trying to get into South Africa. They were nabbed at Johannesburg airport and then deported this week.

    Photo by Lutz Bongarts/Getty Images

    Chairs flew during British football fans riot in Chareleroi, Belgium on June 17, 2000.

    'Hooliologist' explains the phenomenon
    Some in the U.S. may struggle to understand why soccer attracts violent followers.

    Cass Pennant, a former soccer hooligan who is now an author and self-described "hooliologist," explained that "football" was different to other sports.

    "Ordinary people get caught up in it, the togetherness, the feeling. It's probably the only sport where the fans can take part, kick every ball," he said. "In other sports, you are very much a viewer. There is this kind of magic that ties people together."

    Pennant, whose life was turned into a film called "Cass," said this passion could sometimes lead to violence, particularly among young, working-class men with little else in their lives. "The football hooligan thing is a culture ... a gang culture of fashion and a violent lifestyle," he said.

    "Pete," who is involved in a website dedicated to Chelsea Football Club's hooligans, told msnbc.com that he doubted there would be any major trouble linked to Saturday’s England vs. U.S. match.

    "If there is [any violence], it will be drink-related and would not be directed at any American fans because they are American," he wrote in an e-mail. "I personally like Americans (unless they are Irish republican sympathizers, then I wish them nothing but bad luck and an early end.)"

    "Pete" said he was friendly with members of the California-based Orange County Hooligans, but added "they are not really hooligans." He didn’t think that they really understood the term to mean people who engage in soccer-related violence.

    Mark Perryman, author of "Ingerland: Travels with a Football Nation," said soccer violence was once "a defining characteristic of Englishness."

    But the genuine fans had helped to marginalize the violent element, he added.

    Perryman’s theory was that while there might be a "couple of hundred idiots," all they would do was "drink themselves stupid and lie in the gutter" rather than attack Americans.

    However, he warned Americans in London might be more at risk. "A late winner for the USA and I wouldn’t like to be an American tourist close to a pub in central London with a group a beered-up lads," Perryman added.

    Fans like Perryman – who is currently in South Africa for the tournament – are now very much in the majority. But the extreme violence once threatened to drive peaceful supporters away.

    A spokesman for England's Football Association, who declined to give his name in line with usual British custom, recalled his experiences during Euro 2000.

    "It was a pretty horrible place to be. The security around England fans was very, very high," he said. "I remember seeing Scotland fans and Dutch supporters … a great bunch … you would have rather been around them than the England supporters."

    * Ian Johnston is a former member of the Tartan Army, the official Scotland supporters club.

  • World Cup energy on 'Football Friday'

    GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images

    South African football enthsiasts dance during the official unveiling of a giant poster picturing former South African President Nelson Mandela holding the World Cup trophy on the Mandela bridge in Johannesburg on Friday.

    JOHANNESBURG – Earlier this week, our NBC News crew was shooting students milling around outside Nelson Mandela’s home in the heart of Soweto when cameraman Kyle Eppler turned to me between shots and remarked, "I don’t feel the energy here yet."

    It was an uncomfortable thought that had been nagging at me for much of my, albeit short, time here in South Africa, but one I dared not share with anyone.

    Please don’t interpret this to mean unpreparedness for the World Cup on the part of the South African Organizing Committee or disinterest on the part of the people here. On the contrary, everything you associate with a major sporting event – signage, shiny new public works, national flags flying proudly over cars, fans breathlessly discussing the latest sporting news – all those things are prominently on display in Johannesburg.

    Yet, here we were in the townships of Johannesburg, the proverbial heart of soccer in this country, and something seemed to be missing.

    Nervous tension and electric buzz – the key elements that seemingly whip through communities as start of a big event approaches felt absent.

    For someone who has been in cities like San Francisco before the start of the ill-fated 1989 Bay Bridge Series, Boston before its 2004 World Series win and Beijing before the 2008 Olympics, I’m familiar with that feeling of excitement that can capture a city.

    But my hangdog perception of the World Cup experience so far was shattered today after discovering perhaps the most simple, but singularly unifying event: Football (soccer) Fridays.

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    Wear yellow – or watch out!
    In an effort to encourage South Africans to support the national team, known locally as "Bafana Bafana," or "the Boys," and the tournament as a whole, the government announced the creation of the first Football Friday in September 2009.

    Since then, every Friday has become an opportunity for South Africans of all stripes to go to work in yellow national team jerseys, blow vuvuzelas (long horns) and attend special concerts and shows across the country.

    On the final Football Friday before the start of the World Cup, all the stops were pulled out and the city appeared to be on the verge of full celebration mode.

    On a visit to popular talk radio station Kaya 95.9, staffers resplendent in their Bafana Bafana jerseys danced to high octane dancehall reggae blasting over the office speakers while popular radio host Kgomotso Matsunyane grilled a line-up of eager female (and a few surprised male) callers on their picks for hottest soccer stars.

    "I got the green, but I can’t wear green every Friday. ... My laundry cycle doesn’t go that quick!" piped the show’s sports announcer, referring on air to his noticeably absent jersey before being shouted down by the rest of the morning DJ team.

    As far as the Kaya 95.9 radio team was concerned, the absence of yellow and green on Fridays was tantamount to mutiny and punishable by open mockery.

    Tangled portraits, dancing mayors
    A few blocks away from Kaya’s offices, a more dignified celebration kicked off as Nelson Mandela’s portrait was unveiled high above the eponymous bridge in downtown Johannesburg by longtime Mayor Amos Masondo.

    I’ve attended many similar ribbon-cuttings working in China. There, these types of formal events are usually long on stiffness and short on levity as a careful script is followed by dignitaries soberly reading prepared speeches while citizens dutifully stand by and applaud until the ribbon is cut.

    So it came as a pleasant surprise for me to see that throughout Masondo’s speech, fans cheered spontaneously, blew vuvuzelas and gamely waved South African flags. And even though they were standing on Mandela Bridge in a strong breeze, people continued to sing and dance. http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article487275.ece/Decorated-Mandela-bridge-opens

    After a little prodding from one of his advisers, the mayor hopped down into a surging crowd and put on a dancing exhibition that belied his stature as the leader of Africa’s richest city.

    It was only then, watching the onetime 2008 finalist for Mayor of the Year shake his booty and having the time of his life dancing with dozens of his constituents that I sheepishly realized that the buzz and excitement I had sought all week had been right in front of me all along.

    I had been so caught up seeking the grandiosity, the pomp and circumstance that a country like China was able to pull off with such success in 2008, that I had lost sight of the people and country I had come ostensibly to cover.

    Portrait unveiling mishaps, world-class stadiums, security issues and line-dancing mayors – Johannesburg is a big city with a small town temperament and global aspirations.

    To seek the spectacle of so many major global sporting events of the past is to ignore the greatest asset South Africa will bring to this World Cup: everyday people earnestly passionate about this beautiful game.

    NBC News’ Ed Flanagan is based in Beijing.