Turkish soccer team only allowed to have women in the stands

[Lars77]

The Turkish football association has come up with a radical solution for tackling hooliganism - by banning men from stadiums.

Teams sanctioned for unruly behaviour by fans are instead only allowed to admit women and children aged under 12 to watch games.

On Tuesday, more than 41,000 women and children attended Fenerbahce's match against Manisaspor in Istanbul.

The move followed violence during a Fenerbahce "friendly" in July.

The Istanbul side was initially told to play two home matches behind closed doors after fans invaded the pitch during a game with the Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk.

[rpannier]

1. Interesting idea

Be curious to see how it plays out

[Lars77]

2. Sorry i forgot to include the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14998237.stm

[Upton]

3. Check it out...

Though the crowd noise has a high pitch..the women and children were pretty enthusiastic..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJaD8zPcqtY&feature=related

[Lars77]

4. Yup. Turkey is a muslim country, and football games are often seen as a mens thing.

Women were never banned before, but they were usually heavily outnumbered, and the more hard core "Ultras" sections definately wouldnt welcome them so they were mostly in the family sections.

So this is not just about stopping football violence, this is a major development for womens liberation.