The hangover goes around the globe like a Mexican wave — a trail of destructive and sometimes deadly celebration is left after every win and the World Cup “sickie” has become an epidemic.
Bogota’s mayor ordered a ban on alcohol sales during Colombia’s World Cup matches after nine people died in fighting and car accidents sparked by the country’s 3-0 win over Greece.
“We want peaceful celebrations. We must reject violence,” Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro said.
About 3,000 street fights were reported to police after the win in the city of 8 million.
In France, migrant Algerian fans poured onto the streets of Paris and other big cities after their country beat South Korea 4-2 on Sunday.
At least 28 people were arrested by police, who fired flash balls to break up unruly crowds and in some cases were pelted with stones.
Dozens of cars were burned.
Alcohol is causing other World Cup tragedies.
A drunken Mexican fan jumped off a cruise ship deck to his death after his country drew with Brazil. The ship was taking 3,500 Mexicans between the Brazilian cities of Fortaleza and Recife.
Hardly a country has escaped the fallout from World Cup binge drinking.
Nepalese police have caught hundreds of soccer fans drinking and driving after staying up all night to watch World Cup matches.
Police in the Himalayan nation’s capital, Kathmandu, seized the licenses of more than 400 fans in one week, said Basanta Pant, spokesman for the Kathmandu Traffic Police Division. That is twice the weekly average.
Authorities have deployed 100 extra personnel to stand guard at main intersections until 4am, ready to stop beer-fueled fans.
World Cup absenteeism — what the British call “throwing a sickie” — is a widespread problem around the world.
In Britain, employment law specialists ELAS said that “‘World Cup fever,’ the mystery illness that strikes once every four years,” could cost the country’s economy up to £4 billion (US$6.8 billion).
Its survey of 1,500 workers revealed that 13 percent plan on “throwing a sickie” to watch matches and 43 percent would take planned or unauthorized time off.
In Paris, Arnaud Monthlery, owner of a small restaurant, said that five of his nine staff failed to turn up the day after France beat Switzerland 5-2 on Friday night.
“As a fan I’m happy that they won. As a businessman I’m worried that this good form will last,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier