The not-so-beautiful game

This is football, Cambodian-style. It's not the flowing football of the Premiership, nor the graceful play of the Brazilians. It's not even the methodical technique of the Germans or the gutsy athleticism of the Americans. But it's certainly very entertaining.

The other week a friend invited me to come to the Olympique Stadium to watch a Cambodian Premier League match. My suprise at there actually being a Cambodian 'Premier League' (the only 'sort of' professional league there is) was matched only by my suprise at how few supporters had come to watch the game. And most of those seemed more interested in the free t-shirts that were being handed out in the second half than the game itself!

Anyway, the game itself. From the kick-off, the style of football could only be described as crazy. Players flooded forward in attack, desperately searching for a goal while seemingly forgetting that the goalkeeper is not the only defensive player on the pitch. When they weren't flooding forward, they were throwing themselves into tackles or flinging themselves onto the turf to avoid the flying tackles.

It was raw football - schoolboy stuff but with a vengeance. After several goals and much entertainment, things took a turn for the (even) worse. A player from the visiting 'Army' team was harshly sent off by the referre. The result was an Army team even more determined to injure someone from the Phnom Penh team, choosing their lanky, Brazilian (why must every foreign team now have a Brazilian?) striker as the unwilling victim.

When he was brought tumbling to the ground by a two-footed tackle, all hell broke loose. The Phnom Penh players raced in and begun shoving the Army players. The Army players shoved back harder. Before our eyes had time to adjust, both benches had cleared with coaches and substitutes storming the pitch to get into the melee.

Whilst looking out for the first real 'punch' to be thrown, we unexpectedly caught sight of one of the Army players kung-fu kicking the referee in the stomach! The referee somehow managed to stay on his feet and made a hasty retreat towards the corner flag. Before we knew it, the Army (this is the actual army or Military Police) had run onto the pitch with their guns, trying to break-up the madness and restore some order.

By the time the brawl was over, the Army players had decided they had had enough. They took off their shirts, threw them down to the ground in disgust and marched off towards the changing rooms, refusing to continue playing. The result: Army forfeited the match and Phnom Penh were declared automatic winners with 15 minutes left on the clock.

It was exciting, entertaining and even a bit frightening at times, but I'm not sure I could call it football. Maybe football, Cambodian-style...