The Phenomenon of Football Hooliganism

A hooligan is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “A violent young troublemaker, typically one of a gang”. Hooliganism is believed to be unruly aggressive behaviour that is associated with hooligans. This sort of behaviour is usually associated with sports fans, specifically supporters of association football. The link between hooliganism and violence in sports was made in the late 1960’s in the UK with football hooliganism. Football hooliganism is behaviour that can result in confrontation between opposing fans which can take place before, during or after the match either outside on the streets or at the stadium. It can involve as little as two people or as many as thousands. It may start off with little incidents such as spitting, name calling etc. and later develop into more dangerous fights which may involve objects and weapons such as knives.

The term football hooligan was created by the media to pinpoint those causing a scene at the matches. During the mid-1960s the media was supple and uncertain as to whether the label on hooligan should be given to different incidents. To many people, Football hooliganism is seen to mean violence or disorder that involves football fans. Football hooliganism is viewed as something of an easy target for the media. The chances of a story being missed is very rare as there are journalists present in every match across the nation. The use of TV cameras means that any interruptions in the stadium is caught on tape. Since the 1960s, journalists were assigned to football matches where they had to report back on crowd activities as well as the game itself. Due to this, the media coverage of football-related disorder and violence is widespread, and the British tabloid press in particular have an enthusiastic approach to any incident that takes place, complete with scandalous headlines such as 'Savages! Animals!'.

A strong disapproval of hooligans is seen as the norm across the media and there has been disputes about the exaggeration of the style of writing expressed on football violence as being far more problematic than what it actually is. Press sensationalism was identified as a problem in the 1978 Report on Public Disorder and Sporting Events, which was executed by the Sports Council and Social Science Research Council. It noticed that: “…the outcome in terms of people arrested and convicted, people hurt, or property destroyed is negligible compared with the number of people potentially involved.”

Media Coverage of Hooliganism Has Added to the Problem

A study carried out by Murphy, Dunning and Williams in 1988, revealed that before the first world war, there was a regular occurrence of chaos at football matches and newspaper reports of trouble were frequent. Though the style of the reporting was much more different from the coverage on hooliganism we get today. Many of the reports that occurred before the first world war were made in a discreet fashion. The articles were smaller and more accurate which meant there wasn’t much to comment on also they were situated under a more sensible caption such as ‘Football Association Notes’. The style of writing started to change during the inter-war years due to newspapers giving out more space for advertisement, which meant that it was very important for stories to have the power to attract people’s attention more than before. In addition, Murphy and his colleagues believed that the media changed the way football crowds were seen as they became more systematic and well behaved, or incidents that did take place but were not to be reported. Still, there was a touch of concern and accusations that started to appear in the stories. This carried on over the course of a decade or so after World War Two and was at that time in which it was referred to as football’s heyday (the period of big, vigorous yet obedient crowds). Despite that fact that there was a decrease in the number of incidents, murphy et al suggested that this was not all true as there were some disorders which usually did not get reported.

The style of reporting on football violence in present day, dates back to the mid 1950s. A point in time where there was a rise in juvenile crime and youth violence, which meant there was an extensive amount of panic that had led to the press in making stories of this matter and the best place to find these were in football matches. Despite this, many of the reports tried to make it appear less important than what it really was, and articles started to generalise hooligans to football fans. By mid-1960s, the date of the world cup being held in England was nearing and there were warnings from the press as to how the hooligans could destroy the tournament. Although there were no disturbances during The World Cup, there was an increase in moral panic regarding hooliganism. By the end of 1970s, many tabloids were demanding harsher consequences to be put in place for mischief-makers which was evident by headlines such as “Smash These Thugs” and “Cage the Animals”. A lot of these demands were made during the 1980s when tragedies such as the Heysel deaths in 1985 took place, which led the British authorities to take more action. These acts did not do much in terms of eliminating hooliganism and instead may have triggered it. As a result, football hooliganism was still heavily featured on newspapers and continued to be a target of the media and still is today.

In the treatment of football hooliganism in the press, Stuart Hall discovered what he goes by as ‘amplification spiral’, whereby an exaggeration of a coverage can result in worsening the problem.'…This increased control creates a situation of confrontation, where more people than were originally involved in the deviant behaviour are drawn into it … Next week's confrontation' will then be bigger, more staged, so will the coverage…”. Hall explains that this spiral effect has been a common issue in the reportage of football hooliganism since the 1960s. Central to Halls theory was the techniques used by the press as “editing for impact” was essential in delivering the message in a way that is shocking and exciting by using “graphic headlines, bold type-faces, warlike imagery…”.

This idea was supported by a later study carried out by Murphy et al, they argued that the direction in which football hooliganism has taken since the 60s, i.e. daily rivalry between the opposite teams, has accelerated due to press coverage on the incidents. Particularly, the obvious style of writing used by reporters in the tabloids such as “Off – To a Riot”. Moreover, Murphy discusses that the people working in communications have the power in decision making over policies which deals with football hooliganism, this has resulted in largely short-sighted measures which has seen violence move from the terraces onto the streets and towns outside the stadium area. It is evident that tabloids do not provide social explanations of football violence as it would not make an eye-catching headline and is unlikely that a report on this in the popular press will contain such intuition.

In spite of there being no direct comparable of the British tabloid extremes in other European countries, there has been research pointing out the importance relating to the problems of media coverage on football hooliganism. With countries consisting of high levels of football-related disorder, researchers have concluded that hooligans tend to revel in the media coverage they get and usually seek it along with the opposing team eagerly battling it out for column inches in the papers and mentions in sensational headlines. The media has a great influence over football hooliganism which was evident in reports produced by the European Parliament in which it implied that the media refrain from sensationalism and instead encourage fair-play and sporting values.

Football hooliganism is often glamorised by the media in documentaries and movies such as The Football factory. This media representation contributes to the negative stereotype given to football fans. Transportation was provided to football fans by West Ham’s firm known as the Inter City Firm (ICF) which meant fans can travel to matches with the use of the rail network. However, when using the trains, they would link up in a set location to fight with the opposing team. Due to these confrontations, the ICF would leave a calling card which generally led to disputes between themselves and fans by ruining their pubs. The firm’s reputation had been glamorised and was made apparent in the public eye by movies and books that had dedicated to this topic. Movies such as “The Firm” pursued the leaders of the ICF in a cruel view at football violence along with other related movies such as ‘Rise of The Foot Soldier’, in which Carlton Leach is seen to rise up the criminal underworld beginning including West Ham’s hooligan element.

On many occasions football hooliganism has been labelled as the ‘English Disease’. Though this was not just used on England but other countries too as they had major problems with hooligans. In Italy, a number of violent individuals within the Ultra faction have been part of numerous violent incidents as well as attacks on English fans. Trouble brewing in Italy were notably high in Rome and resulted in the death of a police officer in 2007 due to hooliganism. Manchester United fans were also actively taking part against the police during a match against AS Roma in that very same year. Not long after, AS Roma scored a goal that saw Manchester United fans reciprocate to the home fans who chucked objects such as bottles into the Manchester United away end of the stand. As the two opposing teams came together they were divided by perspex barriers. Police were called in to stop these violent individuals but were overly forceful and attacked Manchester United fans with police batons. Instead of trying to make the situation better, they ended up making it worse by becoming the main reason for the chaos. It was argued that Manchester United hooligans were to blame for the disturbance caused but footage shows otherwise in which police did not handle the situation correctly and resulted in many United fans to be injured. The incident made headlines one of which The Sun wrote “Manchester United fans were charged by police with batons during the 2-1 defeat in Roma”. A reporter featured in the story claimed that “One supporter was hit over the head and needed treatment for a bloodied head”. This shows that United fans were not to take all the blame, though they responded immorally to the situation, it was the Italian fans which triggered the fight along with the Italian police contributing to the problem.

Football hooliganism has changed significantly since the Taylor report. Stadiums have now been introduced to all-seaters and attempts made by each team to solve any rooted issues that may relate to the standing areas at stadiums. Also, the use of Closed Circuit Television and football intelligence meant there was a decrease in the number of occurrences as deviant individuals are aware that they can’t get away with any incidents like before without getting caught on CCTV. While it seems that the number of arrests made in relation to football offences have reduced, a lot of the misbehaviour has been located away from the stadium as groups have become more cautious and is likely to be more violent. It is very common for incidents to be magnified by irrelevant media reportage and majority of the times, English supporters have been the casualties of attacks caused by local fans or the police rather than being the provoker. The press has claimed that this sort of behaviour is the consequence of drunken hooligans travelling with the intentions to cause a scene with drunken English fans. An inquiry into the incidents was viewed by Stott and Pearson, they disapproved of this and implied that external factors such as unsystematic policing and the presence of hostile youths were generally the cause for carrying out riots which involved English fans abroad.

Conclusion

It is obvious that football will never be free from crowd disorder. This is due to the fact that people are usually under the influence of alcohol at big gatherings and thus there is a high probability that some disturbance will occur whether there’s a match or not. The media plays an important role in the portrayal of football hooliganism in the public’s eye, with the biggest obstacle being the sensationalist reporting of the British tabloids. It is evident that the press has had the power to create the phenomenon of football hooliganism we see in present-day, the way it has had an influence over public opinions of the problem and how it can influence the actions of fans. The many different ways in which the media and publications present the coverage of the stories, has an impact on the global prevalence of football hooliganism. People that attend the matches should be able to support their teams without looking over their shoulders, fearing those surrounding them in the stands. Radical fans that provoke these needless behaviour, are ruining the likeness of the world’s best well-known sport and harms the reputation of its many followers.

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