On the Scene: Euro-Sportsmanship

THE European Union has tried to expunge national animosities from the human heart by administrative means; but, rather like St. Augustine’s abjuration of sin, it hasn’t happened yet, at least if the recent football match between England and Italy played in Rome is anything to go by.

Much ink has been spilled in scholarly elucidation of the origins of the violence at the Stadio Olimpico. Did the Italians, whose police waded with flailing batons into the English supporters, and whose fans ripped up their seats and hurled them at the English, start it? Or was it the English, whose sack of Rome 1,587 years after its first destruction at the hands of barbarians created a general atmosphere of tension and mistrust?

About the Author

Anthony Daniels

Mr. Daniels, a retired doctor who worked in several parts of the world, is the author of Mass Listeria, a book about health scares.

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THE European Union has tried to expunge national animosities from the human heart by administrative means; but, rather like St. Augustine’s abjuration of sin, it hasn’t happened yet, at least if the recent football match between England and Italy played in Rome is anything to go by.

Much ink has been spilled in scholarly elucidation of the origins of the violence at the Stadio Olimpico. Did the Italians, whose police waded with flailing batons into the English supporters, and whose fans ripped up their seats and hurled them at the English, start it? Or was it the English, whose sack of Rome 1,587 years after its first destruction at the hands of barbarians created a general atmosphere of tension and mistrust?