Are Football Hooligans for Real?

I have often been intrigued by the violent display by sports fans, and particularly so in the case of football (soccer) hooliganism.

Sports is often understood as a means whereby one perfects oneself physically and mentally, perhaps more the former than the latter. It helps to energize your physical potential, to divert your baser aggressive tendencies into a socially acceptable mode. It promotes a sense of competitiveness but within acknowledged bounds. One is expected to play sports in a sportsman-like manner. Any deviation would be frowned upon.

And of course we see players on the field trying their utmost to win and not to do so in an unfair way. The lapses they commit will suffer sanction and punishment doled out by the referee or umpire, if they are committed on the field. Other lapses will be dealt with by the relevant sports authorities.

So by and large that is what sports is about. Spectators understand that. All teams have fans. They are the supporters of their teams. They know that violence is not part of the game. There is nothing wrong in cheering and encouraging. But why is it that especially in soccer we see fans wanting to do violence to fans of other teams? Such behavior is not supportive of their own team, but the effect is just the opposite.

Sports involves aggression, but is confined to itself and restricted by the rules of the sport. It mimics the reality of violence and aggression; perhaps it sublimates the true aggression that resides in all of us.

Sports is symbolism. Competing players and teams are not true enemies, but are made so for the duration of the game.

What seems to have happened with hooliganism is that the fans have lost this sense of symbolism. They have replaced the symbolism with reality. They take upon themselves the role of warrior, venturing out to the battleground. It is not a complete replacement, but rather an admixture. The sense of sports is still there, but they set out with some expectation of physical engagement. They ready themselves, often at some sacrifice of money and time, to march in support of their team, travelling long distances to stake their physical presence. They work themselves into some sort of frenzy, and as the event goes on, emboldened with beer and such like, their mind-set has transformed itself into battling the enemy, who they see as supporters of the opposition.

They replace the playing field with the city streets. They maraud and throw taunts or make themselves feel provoked by the slightest perceived offense. Then the battle commences. But since this is a perverted reality, there are in fact no generals directing their actions. The battle descends into chaos, more like small groups sporadically fighting one another. Still this can do real damage. When the city police intervenes, it turns into riots. They take on all comers.

It’s not just a matter of drunken loutish behaviour. It’s not that they do these things because they are intoxicated; it’s that they get themselves intoxicated for the purpose of doing such things. “Dutch courage”, it’s sometimes called.

Yet the mystery is why this happens with football and not the other sports? It would be unimaginable to see gangs of tennis fans armed with their lethal tennis rackets and using their tennis balls as projectiles! And it’s not the game itself. American football is a fast and aggressive game, and fans’ emotions are just as roused to fever pitch, but I have not heard of hooligan behavior of the type described. And it’s not confined to one or two nations. It is of international dimensions!

It’s a phenomenon that defies explanation.