Baltic football riots

  • 2008-06-02
  • In cooperation with BNS

Photo: Piotr Ciuchta

RIGA- Lithuanian football fans rioted in the Latvian resort city of Jurmala during andafter the football game between Lithuanianand Estonian teams late onSaturday, reported Latvian Football Federation spokesman Martins Hartmanis.

"The municipal police did not manage to control the crowd, thereforepolice special unit was asked for help," said Hartmanis.

Six Lithuanian football fanswere arrested and several people were taken to the hospital.

Meanwhile, the police reported that one football fan has been detainedduring riots. The police received a call after drunken Lithuanians had damaged two cars. Two criminal procedures havebeen launched.

Lithuanian football fansvandalized seats at the stadium and lightly injured policemen who tried toprevent the riot. The Lithuanianfootball fans had fights with the Estoniansafter the game.

At the end of the game the Lithuanianteam managed to hit a goal, and three Estonianfans ran onto the field. Lithuanianfans began jumping on chairs, breaking them. When the police tried to stopthem, they were hit with fragments of chairs, injuring policemen.

About 100 chairs are broken, and the toilets of the new stadium vandalized.

Clashes between Lithuanian andEstonian football fans continuedwhen the game was over and they left the stadium.

According to the federation, about 300 Estonian fans and about 150 Lithuanian fans had arrived to the games. The police detainedthree Estonians and one Lithuanian, but later released them asthey had not been the rioters.

There were no incidents during the Lithuanian-Latviangame on Sunday.

 The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF)is prepared to compensate damages to Latvia'ssea resort town Jurmala's stadium.

"Representatives of the Latvian Football Federation requestedcompensation for 86 chairs broken by Lithuaniansin the stadium. An official letter has been handed in to Director of Lithuanian national teams RobertasTautkus. Damages will have to be covered", LFF Spokeswoman Vaiva Zizaitetold the Baltic News Service

In its first match of this year's Baltic Cup, the Lithuanian national team scored a 1:0 victory against the Estonian team, which lost the secondgame in a row.

A riot broke out in the stadium after the winning goal by ValerijusMizigurskis during the 87th minute, at which time three Estonian fans ran out onto the field and their Lithuanian counterparts startedjumping on the stadium's chairs.

"Such behavior on the part of our fans is not justifiable. Another twobuses filled with fans arrive to Rigatoday. I hope such an incident will not repeat itself", Zizaite said.

The final game of the Baltic Cup will be between the Lithuanian and Latvian teams.