Baltic football riots damage stadium

  • 2008-06-04
  • Staff and wire reports
JURMALA - The Latvian Football Federation has asked its Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts to provide compensation for repairs to a football stadium after rioters tore up seats and toilets during a Baltic Cup match.
The match between Estonia and Lithuania on May 31, held in Jurmala, Latvia, erupted into violence after a Lithuanian player scored a crucial goal in the final minutes of the game.
"The municipal police did not manage to control the crowd, therefore a police special unit was asked for help," Latvian Football Federation spokesman Martins Hartmanis said.

Six Lithuanian football fans were arrested and several people were taken to the hospital.
At the end of the game, after the Lithuanian team scored the winning goal, three Estonian fans ran onto the field. Lithuanian fans then started smashing chairs and destroying the stadium's toilet facilities. When the police tried to stop them, they were hit with fragments of chairs, injuring policemen.

"Representatives of the Latvian Football Federation requested compensation for 86 chairs broken by Lithuanians in the stadium. An official letter has been handed to Director of Lithuanian national teams Robertas Tautkus. Damages will have to be covered," LFF spokeswoman Vaiva Zizaite said.
Lithuanian football fans who were at the event allege that police attacked them, and that they were merely defending themselves from unprovoked police brutality.

"Latvian policemen attacked us in the stadium after the Lithuanian team scored a goal and fans got up on the chairs out of joy. I don't understand at all as to why they attacked and started beating us," Lithuanian football fan Ingvaras Butautas told the Baltic News Service.
"Let them watch a video recording 's it will be easy to see that most broken chairs were in the area where the police attacked. They broke as people fell on them," he said.

Latvia went on to win the Baltic Cup, their ninth victory in the tournament to date, on June 1.