Terrorism is a big threat to football

Hamza Nkuutu Why should anyone kill someone who has gone to watch a football game or attend a music concert like what happened last week in Paris at Stade de France and the Bataclan theatre. For starters, terrorism comes from the word terror, which itself is any act intended to cause fear. In most instances, “the word terrorism is politically loaded and emotionally charged.” So, if terror goes hand in hand with politics, why should the person carrying out that act of terror (terrorist) turn guns against innocent people enjoying the best of their lives while they still can? Why? Nine times out of ten, the people who go for public events like a football match or a music concert, like I put in the first line, are not politicians, or actively involved it, and in the case that some are, even those, don’t go to these occasions to talk politics. The common denominator on everyone’s mind when they go to a football stadium or a music show, is to enjoy and have fun, therefore, it beats common understanding why someone from, I don’t know where, and so high on a drug called extremism decides that indeed these are the right places to settle scores! Terrorists are threatening the peaceful game of football and its lovers. The Paris attacks left a reported 130 dead, but one of the attacks happened just outside Stade de France, our version of Amahoro National Stadium, and reports indicated three people lost their lives there. Imagine had this particular attacker or terrorist depending on how you want to put it, managed to get further closer or by mother luck, sneaked into the ground, the kind of carnage he would case. I am here in Kigali, but even the thought of a terrorist blowing him/herself up in a gathering of over 40,000 people is chilling enough, then how about a football fan in France and Germany where the threat of terrorism inside football stadiums will only get more real following last week’s attacks in Paris. Tuesday’s friendly game between Germany and the Netherlands was called off because of a bomb threat at the Hannover stadium—the fans had already started entering the stadium and had to be to be evacuated as security searched for the ‘potential explosives’. The game between Belgium and Spain in Brussels, also scheduled to be played on Tuesday, was canceled because of security concerns in the wake of the attacks in Paris. In Italy, the security level has been raised after warnings of possible terrorist attacks at a number of historical monuments and buildings of significance in Rome and Milan. If the terrorists can threaten to reach St. Peter’s Basilica (in Rome), cathedral and La Scala opera house (in Milan), what guarantee is there that they won’t target Rome’s Stadio Olympico or The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, home of AC and Inter Milan? Terrorists look for the weak spots, and a fully packed football stadium or a music arena, provides just that, so now that they have started taking their ‘holy war’ to such places, one wonders the state of mind that fans in Germany and France will be in when they go to watch this weekend’s league matches. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

Sports

Terrorism is a big threat to football