So within two days of the World Cup draw, Brazilian football was making the news for all the wrong reasons. On Sunday images of despicable violence taking place at the game between Atlético Paranaense and Vasco da Gama in the southern textile town of Joinville were spread around the world, bringing shame on the country.

The images paint a scary picture that will add to the criticism faced by Brazilian football. The year of 2013 has been horrendous. In February, a flare fired by Corinthians fans killed Kevin Espada, a 14-year-old supporter attending a Libertadores Cup game against San Jose in Oruro, Bolivia.

Although the incident did not happen at a Brazilian stadium, it shed light on the cosy relationship between clubs and ultras, often subsidised by directors for political and sporting gain. Initially punished by Conmebol with games played behind closed doors, Corinthians managed to overturn the decisions.

A couple of months later, some of the hooligans who had been arrested by Bolivian authorities, one of them a São Paulo city councillor, were involved in a punch-up at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium, one of the World Cup venues, in a match against Vasco. That should have set off all the alarms but instead both teams were told to play four matches at least 100km away from their home bases, a slap on the wrist that could not be more ineffective, given these are teams with a national appeal.

They were not the first and will not be the last – unless Brazilian authorities start to take this problem seriously. While Brazilian football has not experienced anything like the Heysel tragedy, there are fears that violence in stadiums is escaping the control of the authorities. Incidents in the vicinity of grounds have been on the rise and a study published in August by the Rio de Janeiro State University claimed that 36 supporters died in incidents in the last two years.

The most daunting aspect of the troubles in Joinville, though, is that everybody could see it coming. Atletico-PR, based in Curitiba, another World Cup host city, were punished in October by the Brazilian Football Confederation for crowd trouble, which led to the use of Joinville, 130k away. The game against Vasco was crucial for both teams – the Rio side needed a win to avoid the drop, while Atletico were fighting for continental football.

Everything pointed to a tense atmosphere. Instead of a strong police presence inside the ground, private security was in place. Fighting fans quickly overwhelmed the personnel at the stadium and now everybody is pointing fingers. Everybody seems to be getting it wrong, especially when it comes to the way clubs and authorities deal with the ultras. It is time they acted before something extremely bad happens.

Clubs need to stop turning a blind eye to hooligans and the authorities must punish supporters involved in trouble. Above all, clubs have to be sanctioned if their supporters are involved in violence. This is the time for harsh penalties, such as point deductions and even exclusion from competitions.

It is no surprise a lot of tweets and Facebook posts after the trouble in Joinville referred to the European ban on English clubs after Heysel. That approach towards hooliganism was highly thought of in Brazil, even before things reached this point. Today, it is looking more popular than ever.