Derbies need light... not heat

Many, I'm sure, will disagree, but to my mind the big local derbies are one of the most over-rated aspects of football.

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Part of the greaness of the game lies in its contradictions; the action all takes place out on the field, we can observe and draw our own conclusions to explain why Team A was able to overcome Team B. We can analyze the events in cold blood.

But at the same time, even in the depths of the European winter, the blood can be boiling. The club's colours are our identity, and with thousands gathering, singing the traditional song, we can lose ourselves in the pure emotion of the occasion.

Reason and passion. The trouble with the big local derbies is that they tend to tip the balance way too far in the direction of the latter. They generate much more heat than light. There's too much conflict in the air, too much hatred.

The atmosphere reaches the pitch, where everyone is running and no one is thinking. The derbies rarely produce good games and have the potential to explode in incidents where many of those involved will wake up the next day with cause to regret their actions.

I'm writing this in the Colombian city of Cali, where a week ago a riot broke out in front of me as the big local derby moved from the back page to the front page.

Over 80 people were hurt, some seriously, at the Pascual Guerrero stadium, where Deportivo Cali - featuring former Newcastle Jets striker Milton Rodriguez - beat America by a single goal.

Images were transmitted around the world of the mass brawl in the south terrace between America fans and the local police, and of the fans' attempts to break through the fence and invade the pitch.

In fact, the scenes outside the stadium after the game were just as bad, and lasted much longer. There, both sets of fans were involved, as well as innocent bystanders and local commerce. Shops hauled down their shutters and passers by took refuge as the battle raged, with order not restored for over an hour.

Some of this can be blamed on totally inadequate public transport. There was simply no way for the crowd to disperse, and obviously the more people are hanging around in a tense atmosphere, the greater the possibility of clashes.

It is also clearly the case that Colombian football exists in an environment with a permanent potential for disorder.

Usually I hate stadiums with running tracks round the pitch but in Colombia they have their uses - without them players would almost certainly be injured by objects thrown from the stands.

It is a common practice, and rather than stamping it out Colombian football has taken a short cut in damage limitation; when visiting players (and sometimes home players as well) go out to take a corner a phalanx of police protect him by holding up their riot shields.

In all probability this merely serves as encouragement for objects to be thrown and if you allow this sort of thing you are playing with forces that can easily get out of control.

Then there is the question of the behaviour of the coaches. One of the low points of the Cali derby came when America coach Diego Umaña knocked down his oppoisite number Daniel Carreño with a sly backhander.

The following day, aware that he faces a stiff  penalty, Umaña was full of apologies. And in his defence he pointed out that his action did not start  the problems. In this he is correct.

The brawl in the south terrace was already raging, and the reason the coaches were in touching distance was because the referee was informing them that it was unsafe to continue with the game.

But Umaña's actions inflamed the situation still further. The trouble on the pitch gave an extra impetus to the fighting in the stands. And there is the wider point about Umaña and his appraoch to the derby, which underlines a central , though often forgotten, truth about football - that coaches have a responsibility not just towards their club but towards the game as a whole.

I can understand their anguish. It is a lonely position. But it is well rewarded and no one forces them to do it.

Umaña is not one of the better balanced of the breed. Last year he said that he contemplated suicide after America were eliminated from the championship. And if the coach has problems with emotional control, so, inevitably, does his team.

This was the case in the Cali derby. Deportivo Cali took the lead - against the run of play - when a free-kick whipped in from the left was glanced in at the near post.

The decision to award the foul was questionable - my impression at the time was that the referee had got it wrong. But a free-kick near the touchline is hardly a penalty, it is a normal situation of the game, one which any professional team should be set up to defend.

On this occasion America defended it badly at a strategic point, the near post. The marker was not tight and Cali full-back Freddy Hurtado was able to get in a clean header.

Conclusion: either the coach has prepared badly or the players has not carried out his defensive instructions.

Easier, though, to accept no responsibility and blame the referee.

Some twenty minutes later America were down to ten men. Central midfielder John Valencia dived in with a two-footed tackle, went through his opponent and was shown the red card. A neutral would not have the slightest complaint with the decision. But America, unbalanced, took the expulsion as yet more evidence of a giant conspiracy against them.

Despite being a man down they dominated the second half. Their spirit was impressive, and could have yielded a better result - if that had been their objective.

However, America were more concerned with trying to get opponents sent off and putting pressure on the referee that they were with scoring goals. And the blame for this lies fairly and squarely with Umaña. It is the responsibility of the coach to set the emotional tone of his team.

Time after time, all over the world, coaches hide behind referees and all too often the media let them get away with it. It is such an easy trick to pull.

So much of refereeing is down to interpretation. There will always be disagreement. All this provides cheap 'taking points' for screaming headlines.

It also allows the coach to avoid explaining how he justifies his salary, amid the controversy he is able to escape the key questions - what did his team set out to do on the field, to what extent were they successful in carrying it out and what explains the difference between aim and achievement.

I'd like to see the media force the coaches to take more responsibility - especially in the big local derbies, occasions where we need more light and less heat.

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