Brazil's Stunning World Cup Loss Reportedly Drives Fan to Suicide

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Brazil's Stunning World Cup Loss Reportedly Drives Fan to Suicide

Updated: 6 days 1 hour ago

 

Carl Franzen

Contributor

 

AOL News Surge Desk

 

Holland's (The Netherlands) surprise 2-1 upset over World Cup powerhouse team Brazil today in a quarterfinals match is being felt all over the world, for good and ill. But tragically, the loss and elimination of Brazil so greatly distressed an 18-year-old fan of the team in Haiti that he leaped in front of a car, killing himself, the AFP reports.

 

Haiti has its own national soccer (football) team, of course, but it did not qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Qualifying for the world's largest and most-viewed sports spectacle is, after all, an extremely difficult and time-consuming endeavor, even for traditionally well-funded teams, so it should come as little surprise that the ill-funded, earthquake-ravaged Team Haiti did not make it into the tournament this year. In fact, the January earthquake was utterly devastating to the team, killing at least 30 members of the organization, including several coaches and players.

 

So as a consequence, many soccer-loving Haitians "adopted" Brazil as their favored team going into the World Cup. As the Palm Beach Post reported: "When Brazil scored its first goal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday, a cheer went up that could be heard all over this earthquake-ravaged capital -- and maybe all over the Caribbean." Unfortunately, now Haiti's hopes for its surrogate footballers have been dashed.

 

Sadly, the suicide of the as-yet-unidentified young Haitian because of the loss is also not an isolated phenomena. Brazil, being the winningest team in World Cup history, has many intensely devoted fans the world over, and a few are so enamored with the team that championship losses destroy their will to live.

 

Case in point: A 23-year-old Brazilian fan in India reportedly hanged himself after being verbally insulted by friends during the recent Argentina v. Mexico match (Team Argentina, which won the match, 3-1, is arguably Brazil's greatest rival). Back in 2006, a Bangladeshi fan reportedly drank poison and died after France defeated Brazil in the World Cup quarterfinals that year.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Two football fans were killed on Friday night in a pub brawl after Ghana’s loss at the World cup quarter finals.

 

The first victim was stabbed in the stomach and died on the spot while the attacker was lynched by the mob at a bar in the outskirts of Nairobi.

 

The two were among hundreds of fans who were watching the match between Ghana and Uruguay at Exto Bar in Githurai Kimbo. The two reportedly differed as they predicted scores, soon after the first goal was scored.

 

Nairobi PPO Antony Kibuchi, told reporters that the one who stabbed the other, was consequently beaten to death by the mob.

 

Still on Friday, a young Haitian football fan was so distraught at Brazil's World Cup exit that he killed himself, by leaping in front of a car, according to witnesses.

 

The 18-year-old died after the incident, which took place in Nerette, on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, following Brazil's 2-1 defeat by the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

 

Two weeks ago, a secondary school boy was beaten to death outside a bar on Nairobi’s Kimathi Street, after differing with his couleagues during a world cup match.

 

The eighteen-year-old student was killed following a dispute over the World Cup match between Brazil and Ivory Coast.

 

Mr Lawrence Asava, a form three student at Kochland Secondary School was watching the match at a popular pub near the Nation Centre when he reportedly differed with his colleagues, leading to a scuffle which left him unconscious.

 

Three of his colleagues immediately carried him to a clinic on Muindi Mbingu Street but before they could get in, they realised that he was dead, dropped him on the street and started running away but they were promptly arrested by taxi drivers who reported the incident to the police.

 

In April last year, an Arsenal fan in Nairobi committed suicide after his team was eliminated from the Champions League by rivals Manchester United.

 

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