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Football or warzone . . . This photo of a Dynamos fan menacingly holding a knife during their league match against FC Platinum on Sunday has gone viral. The police, who are paid by clubs are normally supposed to search football fans as they enter various stadia in the country. Last season a Highlanders fan was hunted and arrested after a picture of him holding a pair of catapult was published in the newspapers

UGLY scenes of violence that took place at Rufaro Stadium in Harare following former champions Dynamos’ 0-1 loss to FC Platinum last Sunday only served to remind us about our football’s dark side and have deepened concern about hooliganism in the game.

Although we accept and understand the emotions involved in supporting football, we believe the Dynamos fans took their emotions way too far by turning violent and stoning their team’s bus and other vehicles, as they attempted to leave the stadium.

That they couldn’t stomach the defeat was not a licence to vent their growing frustrations about the club’s poor performance in a violent manner and we call on the police to deal firmly with all perpetrators.

Several amateur videos of the violence have gone viral on social media networks, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, showing a large group of Dynamos fans pelting outnumbered police details with stones, forcing them to beat a hasty retreat before calling for backup.

The attackers comprised mostly young men and even women, who behaved like criminals and the police had a hard time controlling the aggressive assailants. The video shows police with vicious dogs running for cover as the angry stone-throwing mob, that clearly showed no respect for law enforcement, menacingly charged towards them.

Since this violent episode was captured and posted on social media forums, we urge the Dynamos supporters’ leadership to help police identify and nab the culprits because we can’t afford to have our game being held hostage by a notorious minority.

Violence at whatever event and for whatever reason cannot and should never be tolerated in our country. It’s absolutely inexplicable for soccer fans to lack respect for society by resorting to criminality in the name of a football team.

And to be fair to Dynamos, there is little they could have done as a club to stem the violence, except to appeal for calm. Actually we commend the Dynamos leadership for condemning the Rufaro violence and ditching the stadium for their home matches with immediate effect for the National Sports Stadium where hooligans will find it hard to melt into the crowd compared to the teeming Mbare suburb.

Dynamos board chairman Bernard Marriot-Lusengo even went to the extent of disowning the fans as a “third force” bent on destabilising and discrediting the Harare giants, but that is no guarantee that the same mindless thugs won’t turn up again and stir more violence at the stadium if nothing is done to the criminal gang that was filmed.

It’s unfortunate that even if our clubs distance themselves in every form from these rowdy, stone-throwing violent supporters, they will continue to be punished heavily for behaviour beyond their control.

We call on everyone involved in football to work together to eradicate violence from our game. We believe that such violence does not have its roots in football, but it is in football where some criminal elements find refuge. The sanctions from football hooliganism are too high for the clubs to bear and hence our call for the clubs and their supporters’ bodies, the police and Premier Soccer League to work together to eradicate the problem.

Arrests and prosecutions must follow such incidents of violence to send a strong message to football fans that a stadium is not the place to vent one’s frustrations. Match days should be family occasions where even our little children can enjoy an afternoon out in a safe environment, but such ugly scenes will result in law abiding fans staying away for their safety.

Empty stadiums hit our clubs hard in the pocket as most have no sponsorship and survive on gate takings, but with fans staying away, some may be forced to fold. It is for these reasons that the police, PSL and clubs must act now to ensure that known perpetrators of violence are banned from all our stadiums because we are tired of fans that hurt the values and principles of sports.