Football Hooligans

Football hooliganism refers to uncontrollable and destructive behaviour which can include brawls, vandalism, and intimidation carried out by a group of supporters of a football club. These violent actions range from racial or abusive shouting and chanting, fistfights to riots between opposing firms who use bats, throw bottles or rocks, or even use knives and guns. Fights and scuffles between supporters of rival teams can take place before or after football matches usually at a pre-arranged location away from stadiums, this is to avoid the possibility of being arrested by the police, or fights can erupt suddenly at the stadium or in the surrounding streets after the game. In some cases brawls have caused regular fans to run in panic, where many fans have been killed when stadiums, fences or walls have collapsed. Many people believe that hooligans are just over passionate supporters who take these rivalries too far.

Football Hooliganism has often be called the “English Disease” on various occasions in the media. Though football hooliganism is not limited to England, many other countries around the world especially in Brazil, Argentina, Italy and other eastern European countries have serious hooligan problems. In Italy hooligan groups within the Ultra ranks have recently been involved in a number of serious violent incidents which include attacks on English fans, particularly in Rome 2007 which was marred by the death of a police officer.

One Australian example of this unruly ugly behaviour in football was on Saturday February 7, 2009 when Melbourne Victory travelled to Adelaide in the first leg of the major semi final. During the game flares, firecrackers and missiles were thrown and minor scuffles broke out between opposing fans. “One teenager visiting from Melbourne was left with a bleeding cut to his head after being struck by a bottle near channel 7 studios” Sunday Mail February 8,2009. The violence continued after the game as opposing fans continued to throw flares down Manton Street as police tried to separate them. One Adelaide United supporter described the trouble as “normal, and said both sides were to blame equally” Sunday Mail, February 8, 2009. This is an example of the ugly side of hooligans taking their passion and love for the game to far to endanger lives of normal supporters. This view of hooliganism is quite bias though, as of course newspapers try to sell more copies and a lot of the time journalists exaggerate the situation.

It is very unlikely that football will ever be free of hooligans and crowd disorder. Whenever you get large groups of men are together under the influence of a lot of alcohol and sometimes drugs there is always going to be a risk of disorder, fights, vandalism or hooliganism even if there is a football match or not. But this added passion for their club adds to the fire of violence and their hatred for opposition supporters. Usually people involved in hooliganism are generally in their late teens or early twenties, and most are on low wages or unemployed.

According to a report on the BBC website, almost 700 supporters were arrested by Russian police during the game between Spartak Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg on Sunday.

It is thought that the opening day match of the 2009 Russian Premier League season had attracted approximately 52,000 fans to the Luzhniki Stadium. Apparently, fireworks and smoke cartridges were used as tempers flared in the Russian capital, despite there being a 3,000 strong police presence. Of those detained by the authorities, it is claimed that at least 500 were Zenit St. Petersburg followers who had been throwing seats at the home crowd. The game finished 1-1, with Zenit’s Pavel Pogrebnyak, a Premier League target, cancelling out Ivan Saenko’s second minute opener for Spartak. The news is not good at all for Russian football, with matches now being aired in the USA and Canada to help raise the profile of the league.

The number of arrests at football matches in England and Wales has risen for the first time in four years, which government figures show. The number of fans arrested for all kinds of football violence in England and Wales to the previous year. The club with the most arrests was Manchester United with 192 arrests. This maybe due to the increase of attendances at football games with a 5 percent increase over the past year to 39 million. 97 percent of the violent arrests at football matches are from throwing missiles. 

Millions of pounds have been poured into trying to stop hooliganism. Some ways football clubs are trying to eradicate hooliganism are by some clubs introducing all-seater stadiums and family enclosures, clubs have also introduced CCTV cameras and stewards to help decrease the amount of hooliganism and have introduced banning orders to try to make a stop to hooliganism. But alcohol isn’t the sole cause of football hooliganism. Drinking can aggravate violence in football and there have been many calls for further restrictions to alcohol at football grounds. There have been proposals for at the moment a Europe wide restrictions on the availability of alcohol at football matches have recently made it to European parliament although the legal status on these proposals are unclear at the moment, but in the future we may see restrictions on the amount of alcohol at football matches. On the other hand some fans, such as the Italian Ultras, rarely ever drink at football games so the role of alcohol in this case for violence is insignificant.

“If we can stop hooliganism, we can go a long way towards stemming this great tide of people not going to football matches” Brain Clough (famous footballer and manager between 1950 and 1980).

Some of the advantages of hooligans in football are that hooligans often create a better atmosphere during the game. Most fans enjoy the noise and atmosphere these extremely passionate supporters create during the match. Hooliganism and chanting at football matches also shows a great level of passion for their team and the sport. Passionate supporters also create supporter groups and fan groups which most of the time do the right thing and support their team.

There are many disadvantages of football hooliganism, such as hooliganism can lead to serious injury and in some cases death when riots and fights break out between opposition supporters, if the police are not there to calm down these passionate supporters. Hooligans also usually damage or destroy public property or vandalise and write abusive graffiti. Some hooligans can also ruin football matches if they invade the pitch or by stopping the game for flares and other items thrown onto the pitch. Normal supporter who don’t cause trouble at these matches also don’t feel safe when hooligans are rioting this causes them to not go to football matches as it is not a family safe environment. All these acts can deeply damage the reputation of a club, as the club is seen in a bad light a lot of the time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hooligans/1965115.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_hooliganism

http://www.liv.ac.uk/footballindustry/hooligan.htm

http://www.footballnews.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17805&hilit=hooligans