Worst sports fans ever?

Eurosport - 08 Jun 2007

 

....... we thought we would delve back through recent history to find six of the best, or worst, sports fans ever to grace the planet.

Jimmy Jump - serial offender Jimmy Jump's mission in life is clear; disrupt as many major sporting events and try to outpace as many stewards as is humanly possible. While his raison d'etre may be a little difficult to comprehend, Signor Jump (pictured, right) certainly seems to be good at what he does. The Euro 2004 final, the 2004 Spanish Grand Prix, El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid, a Champions League semi-final, even this year's final between Liverpool and Milan; you name it, he's done it. More often than not though, the Catalan invader is caught by police or the tubby stewards, given a few sly digs and carted out of the ground. Even the television cameras refuse to give him the attention he craves these days, rather begging the question - why continue?

Fan Man - probably the most unexpected of all bizarre fan interventions came in 1993 when James Miller, a flying enthusiast, decided to interrupt the Evander Holyfield-Riddick Bowe heavyweight championship fight at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas by crash landing a home-made flying machine into the ring midway through the seventh round. If Miller expected a hero's welcome, he must have been disappointed when a combination of the crowd and Bowe's entourage, both angry at having the bout interrupted, jumped on him the minute his feet his terra firma and proceeded to beat him unconscious. The fight was held up for 20 minutes and Miller had to be taken to hospital, leaving him to later quip: "''It was a heavyweight fight and I was the only guy who got knocked out.''

"15 to 18 pints" - The most recent addition to the hall of shame was a 29-year-old Danish man who cannot be named for legal (and presumably, safety) reasons. The boozed-up nut single handedly succeeded in administering a rather large dent to his nation's chances of qualifying for Euro 2008 by attempting to clothes-line the referee during Denmark's clash with Sweden last weekend. Aggrieved at Herbert Fandel's decision to send off Christian Poulsen for a clear punch on an opponent, he invaded the pitch with the intention of showing his displeasure by clobbering the official. A combination of the "15 to 18 pints" he later claimed to have drunk and a posse of Danish players prevented him from causing too much harm to Fandel, but the damage had already been done to his side's chances of qualification. Sweden have since been awarded a 3-0 win to leave Denmark eight points adrift of their neighbours. His explanation for his actions was barely credible: "I am actually quite a cowardly person and I have never hit anyone before," he said.

Mathew Symonds - Symonds made the worst decision of his life on a cold night in south west London on January 25 1995. Quite simply, he took on the wrong man. That man was Eric Cantona, one of the most popular players ever to appear in a Manchester United shirt, and when Symonds raced down from the back of the stand at Selhurst Park, where he was watching his team Crystal Palace take on champions United, to deliver a volley of racist abuse at the Frenchman, Cantona snapped and reacted in a way never seen before on a professional football pitch. The resulting kung fu kick, punches, eight month ban and community service are now consigned to footballing folklore, while Symonds' life disintegrated all around him. "I don't know if I would do it again but if I found myself in the state I was in at that exact moment, I would do it again without a doubt," Cantona said recently.

Don't 'do the Bartman' - Steve Bartman's untimely rise to fame is widely regarded as having cost his team, the Chicago Cubs, a place in the World Series in 2003. If ever you find yourself searching for a definition of 'scapegoat', look no further than the 29-year-old university graduate. Bartman entered the US consciousness on October 14 four years ago when he attempted to catch a foul pop-up in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series between the Cubs and the Florida Marlins. The Cubs were just five outs from clinching a place in the World Series, but after Bartman beat Cubs fielder Moises Alou to catch the ball the Marlins went on to score eight unanswered runs and level the series at 3-3. Bartman had to be escorted from the stadium by security guards for his own safety, but it was the next day that the gravity of the situation sunk in - he woke to find all his personal details published in the newspapers and numerous angry Cubs fans calling for a lynching. Later that day, just to make matters worse, the Marlins won the final and deciding game of the series and Bartman's life was never the same again.

Gunter Parche - a few beatings aside, so far the actions of the loonies on our list have not resulted in any life threatening situations. Not so with our last entry, knife wielding maniac Parche, who is best known for stabbing tennis ace Monica Seles on court during a quarter-final against Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg back in 1993. The fan, 38 at the time of the incident, ran onto the court during a break in play to plunge a steak knife into Seles' back. He was soon overpowered as Seles was rushed to hospital, but the Serbian-born former world number one did not play a competitive match for two years. Parche was eventually spared jail because he was found to be psychologically abnormal.

Compiled by Mike Hytner