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Football hooliganism

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Football hooliganism is a distinct form of disorderly behaviour or hooliganism in which participants are supporters or adherents of one or more football clubs or national teams, and is frequently, although not exclusively, evidenced at or immediately before or after matches.

Although football hooliganism has only attracted widespread media attention since about the 1960s, it has its roots as far back as the early days of the game in the late 1800s, when gangs of supporters would intimidate neighbourhoods, attack opposing supporters, or players and referees.

England

Football hooliganism — as it is currently recognised in England — has roots in the 1960s, when the government created the Public Order Act (1968), which allowed courts to ban offenders from football grounds. This did not put an end to the problem, however.

In 1985, the Heysel Stadium disaster — in which 39 people died in a pitched battle between Liverpool and Juventus supporters — marked a low point for English football violence. The spotlight was turned sharply on football hooliganism, with English clubs banned from European competitions until 1990, with Liverpool banned an extra year. After the Hillsborough disaster, the Thatcher government brought in the Football Spectators Act (1989). However, as the Hillsborough Justice Campaign notes, "the British Judicial system has consistently found that violence or hooliganism played no part whatsoever in the disaster" .

The 1998 FIFA World Cup was marred by violence as English fans clashed with North African locals in Marseilles, leading to around 100 arrests. In the 2000 European Football Championship, the England team was threatened with expulsion from the tournament due to the poor behaviour of the fans. After the death of two Leeds men on April 6, 2000, two attacks were carried out against Turkish British citizens by people suspected of being Leeds fans. The attacks were investigated by the police as being racially motivated.

The reputation of English fans has improved due to good behaviour in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Euro 2004 in Portugal. There were limited incidents of violence at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, with over 200 preventative arrests in Stuttgart, with only three people being charged with criminal offences.

Italy

On numerous occasions, travelling English supporters have been attacked in Italy when their teams have played away there. One incident involved a Leeds United supporter being stabbed before a Champions League match. In another case, three Middlesbrough fans were stabbed before the club's UEFA Cup match against AS Roma in the Italian capital. A group of extremist Roma fans, known as Ultras, were being blamed for the attack. Reports said they were led by a man wielding an axe.

Scotland

As in other parts of the United Kingdom, Scottish football hooligans are commonly known as Casuals. The term comes from their clothing style, which was first developed to avoid attention from the police. Their taste for expensive clothing brands now includes classic gentleman's labels such as Burberry, Aquascutum and Paul and Shark. Ironically, now the wearing of such clothing to domestic football matches is more likely to attract police attention than repel it.

Scottish hooligans have a reputation for being amongst the most well organised and violent in Europe. The two most infamous casual firms in Scotland are the Capital City Service (CCS), who emerged in the early 1980s attached to Hibernian and the ASC, from Aberdeen.

The national team's travelling supporters, the Tartan Army, are renowned for their friendliness and general aversion to violence. This reputation has been built up over the last 20 years. Before this, Scotland fans were associated with rowdy behaviour, such as ripping up the Wembley Stadium pitch and goalposts after a Scotland victory over England in 1977. Recent years have seen a modest revival of Casual culture in Scottish football, although it hasn't reached the peak level of the 1980s. This is partly due to anti-casual measures in Scotland.

Scandinavia

Hooliganism in Scandinavia became a growing problem in the 1980s, but pitch invasions and violence in direct connection to football grounds decreased in the late 1990s. Organized football firms took on the role as the troublemakers, moving the problem away from the grounds and the regular supporters.

Hooliganism is said to have started in Sweden when supporters of IFK Göteborg invaded the pitch, destroyed the goalposts and fought police at the end of a football match in 1970, which destined the club to be relegated from the highest league. In the late 1970s — inspired by the English football culture — many hooligan firms were created, including AIK's Black Army The word huliganism was established in the Swedish language as a description of violence in connection with sport events (mainly football) in the early 1980s. Travelling supporters of the Denmark national team are known as roligans; however, the word has no relation to hooliganism apart from similarity in sound. The word roligan is a play on the Danish word rolig, meaning "calm" or "peaceful" in English, and the roligans have a reputation for friendliness and nonviolence equal to that of today's Tartan Army.

Brazil

Brazilian hooligan firms are called Torcidas Organizadas. Originally pacifist local fan clubs (called charangas), they had marching bands that played in the stadiums. Since the 1980s, many have become armed and violent resulting in deadly confrontations between rival clubs. The "organizadas" were originally influenced by American youth movements such as the Black Panthers. The name Jovem (Portuguese for youth) became common in most organizadas that flourished in between 1969 and 1975.

In Brazil, football firms tend not to be restricted to the home states of the teams. It's quite common for a football firm to have members in others states, meaning the firms can be divided into smaller groups. For example, the Jovem Fla is divided into "Pelotões" (Platoons);, the Furia Jovem into "Canis" (Kennels); Young Flu into "Núcleos" (Cores or Clusters); and Força Jovem into "Familias" (Families). These subdivisions are numbered, and each region of the city has its own subdivision. Ground battles between swarms of rival supporters have gone from being in-stadium phenomena (as was common in the late 1980s and 1990s), to violent encounters across cities — and recently characterized by the use of firearms.

In 1995, the São Paulo federal attorney, Fernando Capez, shut down the major Torcidas organizadas, such as Mancha Verde of Palmeiras and Independente of São Paulo FC. Despite this, the organizations maintained their structures, growing in a clandestine manner. These hooligan gangs are known for beautiful in-stadium spectacles, with huge flags and banners. Away from the stadiums, they are organized in regional blocks or cells divided by different parts of town.

In Brazil, it's common to see unity between supporters of clubs that share common rivals. The best-known of these alliances is between Força Jovem of CR Vasco da Gama, Mancha Verde of Palmeiras, Galoucura of Atletico Mineiro and Super Raça of Grêmio. Some of these organizations are supported by their clubs, who pay for their match tickets and transportation to away games. The hardcore supporters' gangs are involved in other activities. For example, Brazil´s largest supporters group, Gaviões da Fiel of SC Corinthians, is known for its Carnaval samba school, which has won several championships at the São Paulo Carnaval.

In 2003, the government passed a new legislation called the Supporters Statute, which forced clubs to improve conditions at the grounds, in order for supporters to be more respected. The law has yet to show results, since Brazil's social problems reflected among hooligan groups go far beyond football.

Turkey

Rivalry With English Clubs

Galatasaray have a notorius fan base for their less than welcoming atmosphere to visiting supporters. Fans often display banners displaying "Welcome To Hell" in european ties when both the opposition fans and team arrive in the city. Before the semi-final UEFA Cup match with

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in 2000 street violence erupted between Galatasaray fans and visiting Leeds supporters. Two

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fans, Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, were stabbed to death in Istanbul. The Turkish FA and UEFA allowed the game to go ahead that night, Galatasaray winning 2-0. Leeds fans and officials became outraged because home fans jeered while a message of condolence was read for the victims.. Galatasaray’s players refused to wear black arm bands. The Leeds chairman at the time, Peter Ridsdale, accused Galatasaray as "showing a lack of respect". The return leg in Leeds had the most charged, emotional yet poisonous atmosphere. Outside the ground saw running battles between police and fans and there were attacks on Turkish TV crews, however Galatasaray fans were banned from travelling to the away leg to try and avoid further clashes between fans. The game saw Harry Kewell sent off and a 2-2 score was enough for Galatasaray, as they went through to the final. It is down to these events that the rivalry between turkish and english clubs exist. Further information can be found from the BBC at the following links , , ,

A man was arrested and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for the stabbing, but the sentence was reduced to 5 years on the basis of heavy provocation. The violence is said to have broken out after a Leeds fan insulted a van driver, and both sides accused the other of provocative acts.

Violence also occured between Galatasaray and Arsenal fans before the Final in Copenhagen , . There has been no love lost between the two nationalities in both domestic team and international team meetings since.

Notes

  1. The Taylor Report: The Football Education Network website. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
  2. Fans die in Heysel rioting: On This Day, BBC News. Retrieved 27 July 2006.
  3. English teams banned after Heysel: On This Day, BBC News. Retrieved 27 July 2006.
  4. Hillsborough Justice Campaign: Website. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
  5. England fans on rampage: by Ben Fenton and Charles Masters. The Daily Telegraph, 15 June 1998. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
  6. Uefa statement printed on the BBC. Retrieved 17 August 2006.
  7. Fan fears grow ahead of England match by Sean Ingle: The Guardian, 25 June 2006. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
  8. Glasgow Evening Times

Reference

  • Franklin Foer. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. Harper, 2005.

External links

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