Tim Vickery column

By Tim Vickery South American football reporter

Read my answers to this week's questions

According to the legend, when Colombia's professional league got under way 60 years ago, the directors of America of Cali had a row over whether or not to join.

Benjamin Urrea, one of the founders of the club in 1927, apparently wanted to keep the club amateur, and he stormed out of the meeting yelling "turn professional, do what you want, but by God, America will never be champion."

Columbian fans celebrate

Urrea, who died in January at the age of 96, went to his grave denying the story. His disagreement with the other directors had been over a different subject, he said. He had never placed a curse on his club.

But mythologized or not, the event became part of the popular culture of Colombian football. Its effect lasted all the way until 1979, when America at last won the Colombian title, and Urrea needed a police guard to protect him from celebrating fans.

Some would say that the curse is still working well in the Copa Libertadores, South America's equivalent of the Champions League.

Four times America have reached the final - including three times in a row in the mid 80s. But they have lost them all.

America are still on the controversial "Clinton List", a register kept by US authorities of individuals and companies alleged to have links to drug or terrorist activities. Tim Vickery

But at a domestic level any curse was well and truly buried in the 1980s. America have now won 12 titles, including 5 in a row between 1982 and 86.

At the time they had found an antidote powerful enough to take on any type of sorcery - money, piles of the stuff, the proceeds of Colombia's cocaine boom.

Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, the brothers who headed the Cali cartel, were fans who ploughed huge sums of money into the club, buying up players from all over the continent and turning America into a regional version of Real Madrid.

These days the club are paying a stiff price for their drug high. The brothers are behind bars. But America are still on the controversial "Clinton List", a register kept by US authorities of individuals and companies alleged to have links to drug or terrorist activities.

This prevents them from having any contact with the financial system. On US say so, America are not even allowed to have a bank account in Colombia, and are forced to carry out their business in cash. It is a stronger curse than anything that Benjamin Urrea might have applied.

Meanwhile, another of Colombia's traditional clubs, Atletico Junior, are also in trouble. A faith healer has appeared claiming that he was not paid for work done when the club, from the sweltering Caribbean port of Barranquilla, last won the title at the end of 2004.

The Copa Libertadores is South America's equivalent of the Champions League

If he is sufficiently vexed to have placed a curse on the club, it certainly seems to be working. Junior are deep in relegation danger, and could be the first of the traditional giants of the Colombian game to go down to the second division.

While some of the big teams stumble, tiny La Equidad went to the top of the first division on Sunday after beating America 4-0. It is a remarkable rise. They have gone from works team to top of the league in the space of just a few years.

Perhaps they have a hidden advantage. They belong to an insurance company. Presumably they have taken out a policy giving them cover against curses.

You can put your questions to Tim Vickery every week on the World Football Phone-in on Radio 5 Live's Up All Night programme from 0230 to 0400 GMT every Saturday. You can also download last week's World Football Phone-in Podcast.

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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Got a question about South American football for Tim Vickery? Email him at [e-mail]

I'm sure you've seen the disturbing scenes at the America vs Deportivo Cali derby (where a riot left around 60 injured and forced the match to be abandoned on 82 minutes).

Would I be right in saying that violence in Colombian football (and for that matter, South American football) is a more serious problem than in European football?

Do you think South American football needs to look at its security measures around/inside the football grounds so we don't see scenes like that again?

I think England is an example that could be followed after the hooliganism of the seventies and eighties, which, although not extinct, has been severely reduced.
Thom Walsh

I had a ringside seat for the Cali derby because I was inside the stadium, and my perception was that the scenes outside the stadium were just as bad and lasted longer.

Terrible public transport made it impossible for the crowd to disperse, there were lots of clashes, the tear gas was flying and it took ages to restore order.

Problems have again flared up in Argentina this weekend, with a Velez Sarsfield fan shot dead on his way to the game.

So there are huge problems inside the grounds and outside - problems of infra-structure, problems of the weakness of state institutions, and problems surrounding the links between club directors and the organised gangs of thugs.

Specifically on the Colombian situation, there is the absurd situation where visiting players, when they go over to take a corner, need to be protected by a phalanx of police holding up riot shields - it's an invitation for objects to be thrown from the stands.

And if small disorders are permitted, the ground is prepared for large scale disorders.

There is clearly plenty to be learnt from the English experience, though it has to be borne in mind that we are dealing with different societies.

The massive investment in stadiums and the consequent huge price rises of the Premiership are unlikely in contemporary South America. And there's also an aspect of the English situation which is sometimes overlooked.

Crowd control techniques and legislation are all very well, but a part of the story was a shift in supporter culture, where fanzines suddenly became more popular than violence.

Top-down measures can only go so far. Bottom-up change is also fundamental, and so I believe that part of the solution is for South American fans to distance themselves from gangs of thugs and find new ways to support their teams.