For the record, I’m a futbol fan from the States, and have been all my life (GO CHELSEA!), but have never experienced a match in the UK. Through my little knowledge, it dawned on me that hooliganism definitely slowed down by the end of the 80’s. Did the absolute shock value from the violence at Hillsborough, even if it was not directly caused by hooligans, help cause this? Or, maybe, was Hillsborough just another straw on the camels back, along with Berlin, Rome, Hillsborough, King’s Cross, etc?
Another popular theory seems to be that when the economy picked-up in the early 90’s, general anger and violence decreased.
Personally, I think Hillsborough, caught so dramatically on TV and by the ~100K attending, sent ripples through the system, and marked a point when the general public was willing to say “No More!” which brought hooliganism to a virtual close.
Thoughts? I’d especially love to hear from the “ask a former hooligan” guy from a few years back (sorry, cannot do a search right now - PC and Server too damn slow) and others with more intimate knowledge than I.
Hooliganism within football stadiums was on the decrease well before Hillsborough. It is still a very real part of policing matches, but everything happens away from the stadium, so the only people who know about it are those fighting, the police, and the unfortunate bystanders.
Hillsborough was certainly a watershed for the reporting of football disturbances - notoriously, the Sun (a horrible tabloid paper) made many lurid claims about the behaviour of Liverpool fans during the event, all of which were totally fictitous. It very quickly became clear that this was a genuine tragedy, scything through the population just like an aeroplane crash. It was on a far greater scale than any hooliganism.
As GorillaMan says hooliganism inside football stadiums was already on the decrease well before 1989. Anecdotal evidence says that the late '70s were the heyday for impromptu violence in the grounds, with the early '80s seeing more organised and targeted violence (the ‘taking of the opposing fans end’ being seen as a victory in this context). The culmination of this was probably the televised cup match between Luton and Millwall in 1985 which finished in a battle on the pitch between Millwall followers and the police.
Whilst the Hillsborough disaster did not occur as a result of hooligan activity, the cuulture that it occured in certainly was grounded in that context. The policing and control of football matches was entirely focussed on ‘containment of hooliganism’. The changes that occured as a result of the Taylor Report following Hillsborough (Stadia improvements, crowd control techniques that didn’t just rely on cages, etc) did, in hindsight (although this was by no means the intention) set conditions to help lead to a further decrease in hooligan behaviour (more women and families at games). Again, though, there were other factors at work there.
The usual rational about football post-Hillsborough is that if you treat people like animals they’ll behave like animals. (Which is actually a bit unfair to animals, but you know what I mean.)
Prior to the Hillsborough disaster football fans were herded and caged. These were measures intended to provent hooliganism that had arisen in the previous 10-20 years, but were essentially counter-productive. They made for an unpleasant experience and atmosphere for fans, and just made it more interesting for the nutters set on having a bit of a scuffle.
Things were past their most unpleasant by Hillsborough, but the removal of the cages and placing the responsibility of not running riot back on the fans certainly helped. It also went hand in hand with improved facilities and safety in stadiums in general, making it more attractive to people who had reasons for turning up apart from the chance of getting drunk and fighting. Whether these reasons were entirely to do with football, and whether the increased prices for these facilities were always justified are different matters.
You also can’t ignore the impact of the Bradford Stadium fire on football ground safety regulations.
An excellent book (whihc most are probably aware of) is Maong The Thugs about an American ex-patwho hangs out, absically, with some football hooligans. I understand that “memoirs” of ex-hooligans is kinda of a cottage inductry in the UK these days. I read in article in FourFourTwo interviewing some of these guys and it was interesting. They almost all said that they had no regerets about how they acted, but that the way it is now is much prefeered and they hope it never goes back to the way it was before. The magazine also got quite a few letters complaining about glorifying these guys. I’ll have to go back and read it again to see what their theory was.
Indeed. Some of the later ones may be more authentic than Among The Thugs (which dealt with Manchester United fans in the early '80s). Whilst it is undoubtably based on real people and events, it does read as though embellished somewhat.
As a regular attendee of football matches and also living in Cardiff which sees high profile finals with many visiting fans, most so-called hooligans these days do little more than ‘dress the part’ and posture around looking hard, safe in the knowledge that the policing of matches is so well oragnised that the chances of them actually having to fight anyone are negligable.
Another factor that has been put forward for the decline of hooliganism, by Irvine Welch among others, was the advent of Ecstacy.
Instead of getting drunk and fighting with one another, rival fans began getting loved-up and dancing with one another.
How much impact this had in the overall scheme of things, I’m not sure, I’d stopped going to so many games by then.
There will be a big test of the hooligan problem this summer, when the Euro 2004 finals are held in Portugal. The England manager has gone on record to appeal for good behaviour from English fans.
Of course hooligans would be the last to respond to such a request.
England have been threatened with being kicked out of the finals by EUFA after considerable trouble in the qualifying stages (mainly against Turkey).
When you have an expected 50,000 thousand fans going the tournament there is almost certainly going to be problems from some elements of those “fans”. The Sun would be bitterly disappointed if there wasn’t any trouble.
I hope common sense prevails, but for some, a football game gives them the excuse they need to have a fight.
I think you’d be surprised just how much of an effect the advent of raving and ecstasy had on football hooliganism, I knew a guy who was a minor hooligan following Leeds in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s and he thinks this theory holds water as he personally knew a lot of people at the time who changed their outlook at this time although this may also have a lot to do with the end of the Thatcher years and maybe just a general feeling of disillusionment with the whole hooligan movement.
Hillsborough provided the impetous for the FA to start getting serious about cleaning up the image of the game. It is true that trouble inside the stadiums was on the decrease, but the following Taylor Report into the disaster lead to the end of terracing in favour of all seater stadiums (which many of the old school idiots claim killed off the “atmosphere”).
also, with the foundation of the Premier league in 1992, there was a movement within the mainstream press to lessen the reporting of the hooligan issue as a means of lessening their reputation. hence the only time you really hear of trouble is at international games and tournaments.
Euro 2004 is really going to be the big one (any trouble from the english and they’re out).
Irvine Welsh is a muppet.
Yes, we can all recall the great football love-ins of the late 80s and 90s. Rival fans could often be seen gathering in town centres to rub Vic on each other.
It reached it’s climax in 1992 when a Chelsea v Manchester City had a power failure to their stadium lights, yet managed to finish the match beneath the glow of 35,000 fluorescent t-shirts and light sticks. At the final whistle the fans invaded the pitch and chilled-out for three hours lying beneath the stars. Man City won 2-1, but news reports agreed that everyone really loved everyone, and the whole world.
Irvine Welsh is a muppet.