Representatives from the Mexican and Paraguayan football federations were also in attendance alongside over 60 government, police, stadium, club and football authorities. General Secretary, Sergio Tolosa made a short presentation on Day 1 of the seminar explaining how the "Barras Bravas" (colloquial expression for "football gangs") cause trouble by throwing objects onto the pitch, fighting amongst each other (one incident involved a fan being stabbed), breaking up the stands, attacking the police and in one incident actually injuring players and referees with stones.
Reasons highlighted for this behaviour included fanaticism, drugs, alcohol, forged tickets, poor infrastructure of stadia, under resourced policing and stewarding, insufficient legislation and lack of proactive support from the media.
The English experts highlighted what problems we have faced and how all parties had come together to try to alleviate this social and criminal behaviour. "It is encouraging to see that the Chilean authorities have already implemented legislation against football violence.
"I think what they need to do is work together to ensure that this legislation is adhered to and that the government, stadium, football authorities and clubs are committed to improving the behaviour by bringing in tough measures such as our Football Banning Orders to put off these hooligans," said Drew.
Solutions which the Chilean authorities are suggesting included: to encourage good behaviour amongst spectators, players, managers to set an example to fans, to ban alcohol, drugs and fireworks from stadia, to ensure police and stewards carry out effective inspection visits, to fund improvements on the infrastructure and upkeep of the stadia, to have clearly marked exits, entrances where people can be searched and crowd capacities can be adhered to, and to limit freedom of movement around the stadium. Many of these themes were covered by the sessions on what happens in England at matches.
"We had to learn after suffering major tragedies in our country and it is only right that we share our experiences and co-operate with our colleagues abroad to enable them to avoid the same mistakes," said Chris Whalley. The delegation visited the National Stadium and attended the match Colo Colo v Universidad de Concepcion at one of the only three privately owned stadia in the city on their last night in Chile.
The FA-CONMEBOL 2004 Co-operation Programme continues when another delegation will travel to Lima, Peru next month to deliver a Tournament Organisation workshop in advance of the Copa America and next year's FIFA U17s tournament. Instructors will include Euro 96 Tournament Director Glen Kirton.