Soccer riots have a long history of being about stupid shit. Either someone talked smack about another dude’s girlfriend or a group (or six) of rows decide to start throwing fascist salutes all over the place. But occasionally, a soccer riot is started for a good cause, like what happened in Nigeria did this past weekend. Manchester United and Portsmouth played a friendly in the town of Abuja, but the organizers charged more for the tickets than the citizens made in a year. So what happened? People got mad and started clashing with police and throwing breakable and flammable things. All right, people the bar has been set—who’s going with us to the Ticketmaster office?

The English premier league teams organised a match in Nigeria as part of their preparations, but also to promote football on the African continent…The organisers evidently overlooked the fact that the average annual income in Nigeria was less than what the least paid player of the teams was paid in a day. So the clash with the police included throwing bottles, tear gas, stones and a lot of injured people.

After riots in front of the stadium, the organisers finally allowed those without tickets to enter and watch the match. The people calmed down and the organisers announced that the prices of tickets would be lower in the future.

They’re just lucky Cristiano Ronaldo’s in LA or else the riot would’ve gotten worse once the town’s men found out that every woman in a twenty mile radius had been been impregnated just by passing him on the street.

Riots in Nigeria Over Overpriced Football Tickets [Javno Sports]
Image [Javno Sports]