World Cup fever taking a dangerous turn

As a nation, we tend to be divided on almost every issue that concerns us, and also that doesn't. Take the FIFA World Cup for example. Our football team has never been anywhere close to participating in the tournament. It perhaps never has gone beyond the pre-qualifying stage. But that hasn't prevented us from expressing our indomitable love for the game. In fact, “love” may be the wrong word—a more appropriate word to describe the clashes and fights that have recently taken place between some fans would be “fanaticism”.

There have been reports of Messi and Neymar fans fighting with machetes in the central town of Bandar which left a man and his son critically wounded; an altercation between two supporters of Brazil and Argentina in Brahmanbaria resulting in a clash leaving at least 10 people injured; and Brazil fans hacking a couple, who support Argentina, in Khulna.

These incidents are shameful. The fact that some people are so easily offended by comments about their “favourite” team and think it's justified to assault others, only points to the lack of civility, and even intelligence, among many of them.

Anwar Hossain, By e-mail