Fair Play: Fiba Asia, revenge of the Pinoy sports fans?
FIRST there was the case of defending champion Smart Gilas, whose invitation to the the Jones Cup was rescinded and now this, Pinoy fans--women and children—getting harassed after the Philippines beat the Hong Kong, 1-0, for the first time.
After the match, reporter Cedelf Tupas, Pinoy fans Andi Sia, Ida Torres and Ysabel Villalfor--who all traveled to Hong Kong for the match—sent out various tweets reporting the harassment they were getting from some of the rude Hong Kong fans. According to them, they were throwing water bottles at the women and children, booing the national anthem, gave us the middle finger salute, brought up the hostage incident in 2010, grabbed Andi’s scarf, and other shenanigans like that.
Makes you want to wish we sent out a few of our Pinoy Pride boxers as Azkals fans, right? Go pick on them and good luck if you’ll last a minute.
There were a few online battle cries of “We’ll see you in Manila!” just as there were a few when all they uninvited Gilas for the Jones Cup, because Taiwan, the host, reportedly couldn’t assure the team’s security.
Politics getting into sports. Crap.
And as some say, we will have our revenge when we host the Fiba Asia men’s championship, which will include Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.
But it would be a different kind of revenge. While some want to vent their ire on the visiting teams, there’s a growing number who want to shower them with kindness, so they’d be ashamed at how they treat our kababayans back in their home. Let’s teach them how a real fan behaves. Let’s show them that being rude is their exclusive domain.
Apparently, it wasn’t only the Pinoys who got disgusted by the behavior of some boorish fans.
In an article for the South China Morning Post, Noel Prentice wrote that an expat, who regularly cheer for Hong Kong, switched sides because of the conduct.
He wrote, “The expat said he would normally cheer his ‘home’ team Hong Kong, but after ‘the pathetic and boorish behaviour of the locals during the anthem, and then jeering every time the Filipinos started to cheer their team, I very quickly switched to supporting the underdogs.’”
Yes, Hong Kong lost a match to the Philippines for the first time last Tuesday, but they lost so much more because of the actions of some of their supporters.
(www.cebufootball.blogspot.com)
After the match, reporter Cedelf Tupas, Pinoy fans Andi Sia, Ida Torres and Ysabel Villalfor--who all traveled to Hong Kong for the match—sent out various tweets reporting the harassment they were getting from some of the rude Hong Kong fans. According to them, they were throwing water bottles at the women and children, booing the national anthem, gave us the middle finger salute, brought up the hostage incident in 2010, grabbed Andi’s scarf, and other shenanigans like that.
Makes you want to wish we sent out a few of our Pinoy Pride boxers as Azkals fans, right? Go pick on them and good luck if you’ll last a minute.
There were a few online battle cries of “We’ll see you in Manila!” just as there were a few when all they uninvited Gilas for the Jones Cup, because Taiwan, the host, reportedly couldn’t assure the team’s security.
Politics getting into sports. Crap.
And as some say, we will have our revenge when we host the Fiba Asia men’s championship, which will include Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.
But it would be a different kind of revenge. While some want to vent their ire on the visiting teams, there’s a growing number who want to shower them with kindness, so they’d be ashamed at how they treat our kababayans back in their home. Let’s teach them how a real fan behaves. Let’s show them that being rude is their exclusive domain.
Apparently, it wasn’t only the Pinoys who got disgusted by the behavior of some boorish fans.
In an article for the South China Morning Post, Noel Prentice wrote that an expat, who regularly cheer for Hong Kong, switched sides because of the conduct.
He wrote, “The expat said he would normally cheer his ‘home’ team Hong Kong, but after ‘the pathetic and boorish behaviour of the locals during the anthem, and then jeering every time the Filipinos started to cheer their team, I very quickly switched to supporting the underdogs.’”
Yes, Hong Kong lost a match to the Philippines for the first time last Tuesday, but they lost so much more because of the actions of some of their supporters.
(www.cebufootball.blogspot.com)
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