06-16-2010, 05:15 PM
Quote:I wonder what charges the police brought against them, since they broke no South African law.They in fact broke a law. If you have a house, a shop, a club, or a stadium, you can make house regulations. If someone else decides to visit the house, the shop, the club, or the stadium, he or she is expected to follow those rules. If he or she doesn't, you can ask the police; it's violation of your home. That is the law that in this case applies.
Example: if someone visits my school, and if he is drunk, I first suggest friendly that he leaves; if he doesn't, I summon him officially; if he still doesn't leave, I can ask the police. The owner of the house, or the one who is put in charge by the owner, has almost absolute rights. I can summon someone to go even without explaining why. (As you read between the lines, this example is authentic.)
So, FIFA is perfectly entitled to intervene when its house rules are violated. Especially when there is a very strong suspicion that (a) people entered their stadium with the intention of creating trouble and (b) this is done for material gain. The fact that no brand name was shown, is irrelevant; many advertising campaigns are based on indirect association - think of the "Camel Trophee" advertisements: no one is fooled that that's an advertisement for a rally, everyone knows it's for cigarettes.
This leaves only the question: why arresting the girls? Well, that's quite simple: because they cannot arrest the Bavaria directors, who are cowardly in Holland, and have not yet decided to go to Johannesburg themselves and defend the people who have so foolishly put themselves into trouble. Besides, this may be strategy: get the information first, find out who is involved. Watergate started with the trial of the burglars, not the president himself.
