Nature and Development of Football Hooliganism

There is no catch - all offence of "soccer hooliganism" in British law, although the Popplewell Report (1986) suggested that this should be considered, and the Taylor Report (1990) proposed the separate offernces of throwing a missile, chanting obscence or racist abuse, and going on the pitch without reasonable excuse. In popular terms soccer hooliganism consists of not only the swearing and unruly behaviour which often occurs in other sporting situations, but also the more serious pitch invasions and fighting in and around soccer grounds or in transit to games. It is usually assumed that lower working class males carry this out. As will be discussed in more detail later. Forms of hooligan behaviour have been present at games of soccer since its very early days. In fact in the 'folk' games of football this behaviour often came from the participants, though at times there was little distinction between the spectators and the players. As would be expected over a period of more than a century, the type of hooligan behaviour has changed. Dunning (1988) claimed that all modern manifestations of hooligaism were to be found occurring in this period, including fights between rival fans and trouble at away matches. Many people assume that soccer hooliganism began in the 1960s. Though this is clearly not true, the perception may be due, in part, to the fact that at this time television began to show both the games and the hooligan acts for the first time. This increased the exposure of hooliganism and shaped public attitudes towards it, though at this time there was, in fact, an increase in the prevalence and a change in the nature of the hooliganism.

In the past three decades soccer hooliganism has been at the top of the list of problems for soccer and sport, and has come to be perceived as a major social problem. Throughout this time expression of the phenomenon has changed, not least because of the attempts to sove the problem. In the 1960s the hooliganism was largely confined within the soccer grounds themselves, with concerns centring on pitch invasions, fights between fans and the 'taking of ends'. As the strategies of the police became more sophisticated and grounds became segregated the hooliganism was much more likely to occur in the surrounding neighbourhoods, and in transit to games. Some academics would suggest that the attempts to solve the problem had, in fact, made it more difficult to contain and caused more inconvenience for the surrounding populace.
Against this background of major domestic problems there was a growing concern regarding the behaviour of British soccer fans abroad. This initially was focused on English club side with trouble reported in a variety of European cities in 1974. This reached its nadir in May 1985 at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels when 39, mostly Italian, fans were killed under a collapsed wall following disturbance by Liverpool fans. This occurred against a background of poor segregation and poor stadium safety. The disaster placed hooliganism high on the political agenda of a British government elected on a 'law and order' ticket. There was little protest then when as a result of the Heysel incident English clubs were banned from European competitions indefinitely. Also at this time more legislation was proposed to try to combat the problem, including compulsory club membership schemes, although this was never implemented.

There was also concern in the 1980s about the rise of so-called superhooligan groups. These were much more sophisticated in their organization, such as the 'Inter City Firm' of West Ham United and the Headhunters of Chelsea. This led to the formation of specialist police sections and undercover operations, which had limited success in combating these groups. It appeared at this time that there was a rise in middle class hooligans, wearing smart designer clothes. The vast majority of arrests, though, were still of working class youths, the clothes more of a statement of 'hardness' than an indication of class position.
After the ban by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) on English clubs competing in Europe, attention was focused on the behaviour of English fans supporting their national team abroad. Incidents were intensely covered by the media at the European Championships in Germany in 1988 and Sweden in 1992, and at the World Cup in Italy in 1990. There is no doubt that other countries in Europe had equivalent, or at times worse, problems of soccer hooliganism. Despite this English fans were perceived, at least, to be the worst in Europe and hooliganism became known as the 'English Disease'.