WELL, YOU CAN CERTAINLY UNDERSTAND THEM WANTING THE PLAYERS TO BE THRASHED:

When footballers attack! (Duleep Allirajah, 5/02/08, spiked)

Now here’s the thing about mass brawls. Despite all the ritual expressions of moral outrage, most football fans love a bit of argy-bargy. If anything is guaranteed to get the crowd going then it’s a good, honest punch up. Obviously goals can have a similar effect. But, no disrespect to the centre forward community, the problem with goals is that they are ten-a-penny. Even the Premiership’s bottom club Derby County, whose goal difference is an abysmal minus 63, have found the net 19 times this season. Pitiful yes but it’s still a goal every two games. By contrast how often do you see a decent mass brawl? Once a season, if you’re lucky.