Unit 87
Football Hooliganism Football hooliganism is seen by most as disorder involving football fans. Usually this involves criminal activity and in most cases occurs either at or just before or after a football match. Much football-crowd disorder is spontaneous, but a lot is prearranged by gangs (or "firms") who attach themselves to foot ball clubs and arrange to meet, and fight firms from other clubs. Football hooliganism has been seen as first occurring in the late 1960's, and peaking in the late 1970's and mid 1980's before calming down following the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters. However, incidents of crowd disorder at football matches have been recorded as early as the 19th Century. During a match in 1846 in Derby two troop of dragoons were called in to deal with a disorderly crowd, whilst pitch invasions became increasingly common from the 1880's onwards. The issue of the media's coverage of football hooliganism is very important as it is the media that help construct the public's understanding and view of the phenomenon. Within Britain the tabloid press in particular has found hooliganism to be an easy target for the kind of sensationalist reporting that boosts their circulation. This sensationalist style of reporting often relies on powerful headlines grounded in violent imagery and war metaphors whilst articles are regularly "edited for impact". This style of reporting has developed over the past 50 years sparked by the moral panic of the 1950's at the rise of juvenile crime and delinquency. To many, the tabloids' style of reporting serves to encourage hooligans and place them in the limelight. The tabloids have also been accused of helping to incite hooliganism by promoting xenophobia. For instance, prior to England's semi-final clash with Germany in Euro 1996 the Daily Mirror ran a headline of "Achtung Surrender" whilst the Sun went with "Let's Blitz Fritz". Central to this is what Stuart Hall identified as the "amplification spiral" that he used to illustrate how this kind of exaggerated coverage of a problem could have the effect of worsening it. It is based around the logic that if a society is concerned about a phenomenon such as football hooliganism, sensationalist reporting, as the only source of information for many, can help to create a widespread and unnecessary panic. This in turn precipitates a call for tougher control measures which when implemented create further confrontation and draw yet more people in to become involved. The tabloid press has therefore helped to amplify the problem and create a widespread panic over football hooliganism disproportionate to the actual extent of the problem. It is difficult to speculate on what makes a person become involved in football-related violence because there are so many possible causational factors. It is impossible to claim that all "football hooligans" are of a certain age or class. At a basic level, most become involved because they enjoy fighting and enjoy the excitement of being involved in football riots. In addition, many are under the influence of alcohol when they become involved in crowd violence.