The Austrian Professional Football League has banned the Vuvuzela from their stadiums.
No, not because their delicate and cultured ears which are used to the sweet music of Mozart and Haydn and Johann Strauss are outraged by the raucous “blatter” of our Vuvuzelas; The Austrian Football Bundesliga (Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga) has imposed a stadium ban on these plastic trumpets because they might be used as missiles.
Vuvuzelas Can Incite Aggressive Behavior
“Vuvuzelas can be used as projectiles. Furthermore, they can incite aggressive behavior among other fans, said Austrian League spokesperson, Christian Kirchner.
According to a Sapa Report in The Citizen, newly promoted Wiener Neustadt had been counting on handing out 150 vuvuzelas to fans to make some noise during the league’s seasonal kick-off at home on Friday against Austria Carinthia.
CIA Factbook
Now my dilemma is this:
According to the CIA Factbook Austria is a well-developed market economy and high standard of living. Austrian citizens have a life expectancy of 79.5 years and only 5, 9 percent lives below the poverty line.
And South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources. Here life expectancy 48.9 years and 50 percent of the population lives below poverty line.
See what I mean?
Vuvus Are Not Used as Projectiles in South Africa
As far as I know vuvus have never caused violence in spite of 70 000 football supporters being packed into stadiums in South Africa at a time and Vuvuzelas are not used as projectiles here – maybe it is because we are poor and we treasure our vuvus.
In rich countries on the other hand, football fans might buy five or six vuvuzelas and take them to a match to throw at other supporters… heaven help everyone it Austrian Football Fans become violent when they see a brightly colored plastic trumpet- I must send a memo to our Minister of Police to tell the boys in blue to watch out for Austrians during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.
Popularity: 3% [?]
i believe ban them. But go vote to ban or keep them at the official site http://www.banvuvuzela.com
over 22000 people have voted ban and 5000 voted keep. Quite interesting
I agree sort of. You can’t have 80 000 fans blowing them at the same time – you can’t enjoy the game like that unless you wnet to the stadium to make a noise. They should allow a few gifted vuvuzela blowers or groups to compete against each other with unique songs or chants. The noise is just not conducive.
ban them ban them ban them !!! go vote at http://www.banvuvuzela.com/
[...] I guess we can be relieved that we were spared the Austrian’s concerns about vuvuzela violence this time around… And Sepp Blatter, well I let us bestow on him the title of Patron Saint [...]
[...] a lot of noise, mostly from European journalists during and after the Confederations Cup. Then the Vuvuzela was banned in Austria from their stadiums and after playing here the Japanese became unhappy… well the saga goes on and [...]
please ban the vuvuzela from fifa2010 matches, where south atfrica isnt playing. so they canplay the vuvuzela to their team, and we can watch the other plays
I don’t think there is much chance of this Ken – this is Africa’s world cup and if is not just about the South African team – the people here have been workjing hard and dreaming fro a long time having the whole world here, where we can watch the best players in the world. This is probably the only time any of these soccer fans will ever get in their lifetimes of seeing a world cup. Most South African soccer fans will never be able to travel overseas…
I am so glad I didn’t go to SA with that din. I consider it to be incredibly rude and it has nothing to do with an African experience. This is an international FIFA tournament. Strictly speaking those stadiums are not actually “South African” during matches. The World Cup has been heldin Concacaf, Conmebol,Europe, Asia and now Africa. Why can’t the South Africans abide by generally accepted international rules and norms? They are no poorer than some countries in other parts of the developing world and they have a pretty sophisticated infrastructure. You don’t need to blast into sonmeone’s ear to prove a sense of identity. I was looking forward to traditional South African songs and dances.