The Cellar - Not IotD material: N Korean soccer unrest

http://cellar.org/2005/nkoreasoccer.jpg

This one is mind-boggling, but not in the IotD way. This is a "soccer riot" in North Korea. The Iranian team has beaten the North Korean team, one of the North Korean defenders was red-carded... and the fans threw bottles and rocks and chairs for 20 minutes.

This doesn't happen in orderly, Stalinist North Korea.

Wired News has the Reuters item

Quote:

The unrest continued after the final whistle, with match officials unable to leave the pitch for about 20 minutes as more projectiles rained down.

The violence spilled over outside the stadium where thousands of angry North Koreans prevented Iran's players from boarding the team bus.

Riot police finally pushed back the crowd far enough for the Iranian squad to depart two hours after the end of the game.

"The atmosphere on the pitch and outside the pitch was not a sports atmosphere," said Iran's Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic.

"It is very disappointing when you feel your life is not safe. My players tried to get to the bus after the game but it was not possible -- it was a very dangerous situation."

"North Korea is an organized society and that kind of behavior will not be tolerated," said a North Korean defector in Seoul who was once a soccer official in his homeland.

"I have never seen anything like this myself," he said. "The people responsible are likely be tracked down and severely punished."

But even though the game went out to the world on satellite, the North Korean media can't bring itself to report anything bad happening:

Quote:

North Korean official media had nothing to say about the violence in Pyongyang. The KCNA news agency carried a two-sentence report on the game that simply said Iran won 2-0.