# Taking flares to a soccer game?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 13, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135 "2005-04-13T15:32:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/1 "2005-04-13T15:32:11Z")
Recently, a soccer match in Milan was called off after disgruntled fans threw dozens of flares on the field, injuring one of the players.
The big question in my mind is, how and why was it that the fans happened to have flares with them?
Are flares more available in Italy than in the US? I can’t recall ever seeing them for sale, though I’ve never gone looking.
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### Author:  [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/2 "2005-04-13T15:33:06Z")
> [@awldune](#):
>
> Recently, a soccer match in Milan was called off after disgruntled fans threw dozens of flares on the field, injuring one of the players.
>
> The big question in my mind is, how and why was it that the fans happened to have flares with them?
>
> Are flares more available in Italy than in the US? I can’t recall ever seeing them for sale, though I’ve never gone looking.
Flares are easily obtainable in the US.
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/3 "2005-04-13T15:37:27Z")
Flares are very popular in Italian football (Serie A) though less so in other leagues in Europe. For example in the Premiership they are a very rare sight, infact only recently one Man U. fan was banned from the ground after being caught on camera lobbing a flare onto the pitch. I think the Italian football authority allow the use of flares to a certain extent, i.e. before and after the game but for obvious reasons throwing during the game is a risky business.
As a side note South American football fans are very fond of using coloured paper to show their support such as tickertape and loo rolls.
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### Author:  [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/4 "2005-04-13T15:52:09Z")
So normally the fans light them and wave them around or something? I just can’t see the appeal, what with all the sparks and smoke.
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/5 "2005-04-13T16:22:39Z")
From what I understand flares aren’t lit so much as “activated” but that is a moot point. Yes, they are normally waved around if it is during a game, the appeal is simply to show support for your team much like wearing the club strip and waving flags. It can look very impressive to see a packed stadium with flares showing the team colours. Here are a few pictures I googled showing fans with flares:
[Picture 1](http://www.bluebirdsdownunder.com/Loko-Flares3%20(2).JPG) - Australian fans
[Picture 2](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41027000/jpg/_41027981_playersflares203.jpg) - A picture from last night’s game, is it just me or does it look like there is a miniature fireman using flares as rocket propulsion?
[Picture 3](http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40124000/jpg/_40124555_fans_marseille300x200.jpg) - Newcastle vs. Marseille
[Picture 4](http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2003/03/20/20030319154116.jpeg) - Man Utd. fans.
[Picture 5](http://users.libero.it/bramu/San%20Siro.JPG) - No flares in this picture but it shows how beautiful the San Siro stadium can look 🙂
[Picture 6](http://www.fieldsofglory.co.uk/Fields%20of%20glory/images/Euro%202004/England%20fans%20massed%20in%20the%20stadium.jpg) - Again no flares but as an Englishman I had to shoe-horn in a picture of the Three Lions faithful 🙂
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/6 "2005-04-13T16:24:07Z")
Not sure what happened to the second link but here is the URL:
[ ](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41027000/jpg/_41027981_playersflares203.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/7 "2005-04-13T16:32:48Z")
I can’t believe Europeans let that kind of stuff go on in a soccer game! I mean, the papers here last week were editorializin’ away because the Red Sox fans had the audacity to boo some of the Yankees, and vice versa.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/8 "2005-04-13T16:44:05Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#):
>
> I can’t believe Europeans let that kind of stuff go on in a soccer game! I mean, the papers here last week were editorializin’ away because the Red Sox fans had the audacity to boo some of the Yankees, and vice versa.
IINM, the next Winter Olympics are in Milan where this occurred. Should be interesting.
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/9 "2005-04-13T16:45:09Z")
It all adds to the atmosphere of the occasion and ribbing the opposition fans is part and parcel of a football game (soccer to our cousins over the duck pond). Generally speaking chants can be as insulting to the opposition fans/players/mothers as you like and the louder they are chanted the better. In recent months there has been an unfortunate spate of racist chanting towards black players which is obviously dispicable and needs to be stamped out with haste.
I had no idea that American sports were supported in such a civilised manner, for some reason I had always assumed that abusive chanting between sets of fans went in sports all over the world.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/10 "2005-04-13T16:53:27Z")
Those pictures that mittu showed makes it look like people are waving what I would call road flares. Something you light and put down on the road to warn people of an upcoming obstacle on the road. They burn pretty hot, they melt the asphalt where they burn on the roads. The ones I have seen are sticks that will burn all the way down. Do the fans just drop them when the flames get to close to their hands? This seems pretty dangerous even without people throwing them around.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/11 "2005-04-13T16:55:34Z")
Anywhere near to a coast will have easy availability of maritime flares. I’ve never seen flares of any kind on use on roads. So I suspect those kind aren’t the ones used.
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### Author:  [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/12 "2005-04-13T17:13:51Z")
Thanks for the pictures! I definitely don’t think you could ever do that in the US because of fire codes, heath regulations, etc.
> [@mittu](#):
>
> I had no idea that American sports were supported in such a civilised manner, for some reason I had always assumed that abusive chanting between sets of fans went in sports all over the world.
In American sports, under normal circumstances, the home team’s fans outnumber the visiting fans by an overwhelming majority. There isn’t much opportunity for competing chants when 90-95% of the fans support the home team. For whatever reason, however, they don’t seem to do it when there is more parity either.
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/13 "2005-04-13T17:40:29Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#):
>
> I can’t believe Europeans let that kind of stuff go on in a soccer game! I mean, the papers here last week were editorializin’ away because the Red Sox fans had the audacity to boo some of the Yankees, and vice versa.
Amateurs, all of you.
You want a lesson in how to be obnoxious fans, come down to Philly some day. They built a courtroom with holding cells in our old football stadium, out of neccesity, not convienance. We booed _Santa Claus_, man!
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/14 "2005-04-13T17:56:36Z")
The BBC has just reported that the player who was on the receiving end of that flair received first degree burns.
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### Author:  [@Jake4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake4)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/15 "2005-04-13T17:57:27Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> Anywhere near to a coast will have easy availability of maritime flares. _ **I’ve never seen flares of any kind on use on roads.** _ So I suspect those kind aren’t the ones used.
You must have lived your entire life on a boat if you’ve never seen a flare on the road behind a vehicle stopped on the shoulder or behind a cop blocking of a lane of traffic. They’re used like orange traffic cones, except they’re bright burning traffic cones used at night and/or in an emergency.
I have also seen them used on railroads. I saw some stored away on a NJ Tranist train.
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/16 "2005-04-13T18:13:11Z")
> [@Jake4](#):
>
> You must have lived your entire life on a boat if you’ve never seen a flare on the road behind a vehicle stopped on the shoulder or behind a cop blocking of a lane of traffic. They’re used like orange traffic cones, except they’re bright burning traffic cones used at night and/or in an emergency.
Except in Europe, where he’s from, they tend to use reflective triangles and not flares.
I’ve never heard of people taking flares to a game before. Makes me glad that I’m a swimmer and I’ve never seen people do stupid shit like that.
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/17 "2005-04-13T19:01:03Z")
Speaking as one who has gotten burned by road flares when setting them out at an accident scene, I cannot fathom thousands of crazy footballers lighting and waving them around. Think back to the Bradford stadium fire of 1985 which claimed the lives of 56 spectators and injured almost 300. Fire+large crowds is a recipe for disaster.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/18 "2005-04-13T19:07:30Z")
> [@Edward The Head](#):
>
> Except in Europe, where he’s from, they tend to use reflective triangles and not flares.
Precisely - that was my point, that road flares simply don’t (as far as I know) see use anywhere in Europe.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/19 "2005-04-13T19:08:51Z")
A sports illustrated article on this.
[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/soccer/04/12/champions.tuesday/index.html?cnn=yes](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/soccer/04/12/champions.tuesday/index.html?cnn=yes)
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-flares-to-a-soccer-game/299135/20 "2005-04-13T19:35:27Z")
You might also know of them as “fusees” or “railroad flares” - usually a red or tan waxed cardboard tube about an inch across and fifteen (or so) inches long. Some - probalby older ones - are self-starters when you pull off the cap. Others need to be struck like a match with the outer end of the cap.
You want to light it and put it down quickly as they get very hot very quick.
They’re extremely common around here - the highway patrol or police will lay out a couple dozen for just about any traffic accident. Makes it easy to tell where the “bad” intersections are by all the burn marks on the pavement.
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