In a bid to curb violence among football fans, a Brazilian club employed the hooligans’ own mothers as stewards for a match held last Sunday. Sport Club do Recife hired and trained around 30 mothers for the derby against known rivals Nautico. The moms were put to work patrolling the pitch and were dressed in orange vests with the words ‘Segurança Mae’ on the back, Portuguese for ‘Security Mom’.

In recent years, the city of Recife has become one of Brazil’s footballing hotbeds, with hooligans causing problems at almost every match of their home team. “The idea was to make the most fanatical supporters aware and help in some way to bring peace to stadiums,” said Aricio Fortes, vice-president of Ogilvy, the PR company that came up with the idea. “At the end of the day, no one wants to fight in front of a mother, especially his own.”

“It is a kind of action that took everybody by surprise,” said Sid Vasconcelos, a marketing executive at Sport Club do Recife. “Nobody could imagine that they would meet their mother at a football game.”

To make fans aware of their presence, the Security Mums’ faces were highlighted on big screens before and during the game. The club said that all the mothers were given the same training as the professional security officials and volunteers who usually make sure order is preserved in the stands.

Believe it or not, the bizarre strategy seems to have worked – not a single fan was arrested during the home team’s last match!

via Sport Recife