Post soccer match riot causes 70+ deaths

From my MSNBC app: http://bit.ly/Apj7h9


This article discusses a great tragedy in Cairo -- 74 people (one of whom was a police officer) reported dead after a riot following a soccer match. The best team in Egypt, Al-Ahly, lost in a shocking upset to Al-Masry, which caused fans (soccer fans are known as hooligans for a reason) to riot. The final score was 3-1.
Struck by the enormity of this event, the goalkeeper for Al-Ahly was quoted as saying he and his teammates had made the decision to quit playing soccer.
This article connects this riot to recent politically-inspired violence, although there is no real relation. This riot was purely about the game. There is just a familiarity about the violence in the streets. The greatest similarity seems to be the lack of police control, in any case of violence or rioting.
An even greater tragedy is that this isn't the first such post-soccer riot and likely won't be the last. History is strewn with such riots after matches. The article reports that this incident was the worst since 1996, when a stampede left 78 people dead in a Guatemalan stadium.
When this alert popped up on my phone today I wasn't even surprised. More than anything, that saddened me. Soccer is something I am very passionate about, but even I cannot emotionally comprehend how it turns into this type of a situation.
In class last night, we touched on values and how they pertain to an individuals code of ethics. I think this is a strong example of how values can affect peoples choices. For less privileged people, in poorer countries than the USA, they seem to place a much higher value on their city's or country's pride in context of sports.
I have been known to cry over sports losses, and even that is an extreme for a middle class American. But to storm a field, stampeding and crushing those around me? As important as sports are, the situation would have to be very different to prompt me to react so strongly.