User:Jonas-heegaard/Football hooliganism

= Football Hooliganism =

Introduction
Football hooliganism constitutes violence and other destructive behaviors perpetrated by spectators at association football events. Football hooliganism typically involves conflict between psuedo-tribes, formed to intimidate and attack supporters of other teams. Certain clubs have long-standing rivalries with other clubs and hooliganism associated with matches between them (sometimes called local derbies) can be more severe. Conflict may arise at any point, before, during or after matches and occasionally outside of game situations. Participants often select locations away from stadiums to avoid arrest by the police, but conflict can also erupt spontaneously inside the stadium or in the surrounding streets. In extreme cases, hooligans, police, and bystanders have been killed, and riot police have intervened. Hooligan-led violence has been called "aggro" (short for "aggression") and "bovver" (the Cockney pronunciation of "bother", i.e. trouble).

Behavior
Hooliganism creates high degrees of violence through the conduct in which they act at the football matches. Outside of the physical violence, the behavior of these fans is extremely in-orderly and leads to conflict breaking out. In some cases, hooliganism involves extreme ideological pathways such as Neo-Nazism or white supremacism. These extreme beliefs which they take on can further invigorate the violence. Hooligans intentions are usually not focused on the match itself, despite club rivalries or pride often justifying the violence. They engage in behavior that risks them being arrested before the match, denied admittance to the stadium, ejected from the stadium during the match or banned from attending future matches. Hooligan groups often associate themselves with, and congregate in, a specific section (called an end in England) of their team's stadium, and sometimes they include the section's name in the name of their group.

The Difference between Hooligans, Ultras and Alcohol Driven Conflicts.
In other parts of Europe and the world these groups are known as Ultras, in Hispanic America as Barra Bravas and Brazil as Torcidas Organizadas. However, it is important to not mix up hooligans with these as they do not necessarily depict violence in the same manner as hooliganism.

Another important distinction is that of alcohol driven violence and violence committed by hooligans. This can be a hard difference to notice as hooligans are regular citizens just like the other fans. Notably, game days can be seen by fans as an opportunity to get drunk, this is supported by a study from Michael Ostrowsky who draws on other research: ‘‘[f]ans who have been plied with alcohol are more likely than their sober counterparts to engage in a variety of behaviors, some of which can be problematic’’. Using this information, it is clear that alcohol and sports have a strong connection. However, restricted usage of alcohol as seen in events such as the 2022 Qatar World Cup, was effective in reducing the level of hooliganism that has been previously seen in other major tournaments.

Violence
The type of violence committed by hooligans can come in a number of forms: starting fires, unarmed and armed fighting, graffitti, hateful speech, and there are even violent acts committed against the players on occasion such as the throwing of bottles or bananas to physically harm or racially attack players.

In 2014 in a match between Barcelona and Villareal, a fan racially abused Dani Alves, the Barcelona right back, throwing a banana at him insinuating he was a monkey; this is a known racial stereotype against black people.

Violence can also come as a result of a players poor performance. Fans and in particular hooligans hold their mistakes to them, ridiculing them in any way possible. Andres Escobar was a Colombian defender who's own goal error lead to the elimination of Colombia in the 1994 World Cup. Subsequently, he was murdered.

Match-day
A study from the university of Munich analyzed violent crime in Germany from 2011-2015 and how much of that can be attributed to football. It found that on the day of the game, violent crime increased by 17% and during major rivalry games, violent crimes increased to 63%.

Early History
The first recorded instances of football hooliganism in the modern game allegedly occurred during the 1880s in England, a period when gangs of supporters would intimidate neighbourhoods, in addition to attacking referees, opposing supporters and players. In 1885, after Preston North End beat Aston Villa 5–0 in a friendly match, both teams were pelted with stones, attacked with sticks, punched, kicked and spat at. One Preston player was beaten so severely that he lost consciousness and press reports at the time described the fans as "howling roughs". The following year, Preston fans fought Queen's Park fans in a railway station—the first alleged instance of football hooliganism outside of a match. In 1905, a number of Preston fans were tried for hooliganism, including a "drunk and disorderly" 70-year-old woman, following their match against Blackburn Rovers.

Although instances of football crowd violence and disorder have been a feature of association football throughout its history (e.g. Millwall's ground was reportedly closed in 1920, 1934 and 1950 after crowd disturbances), the phenomenon only started to gain the media's attention in the late 1950s due to the re-emergence of violence in Latin American football. In the 1955–56 English football season, Liverpool and Everton fans were involved in a number of incidents and, by the 1960s, an average of 25 hooligan incidents were being reported each year in England. The label "football hooliganism" first began to appear in the English media in the mid-1960s, leading to increased media interest in, and reporting of, acts of disorder. It has been argued that this, in turn, created a 'moral panic' out of proportion with the scale of the actual problem.

Causes
One of the main aspects to examine when trying to understand the root of hooligan violence is about the characteristics of sports teams. Chanting, flags, ties to the urban area, all these factors provide a base for "local patriotism", and thus, give way to the unnamed groups and organizations that hooligans identify with.

This is not limited to clubs, the local patriotism referenced earlier can expand to a national level. As seen in the case of the 2016 Euros, violence began from several countries visiting fans as well as the French host fans. The violence at these tournaments can be amplified to another level due to an increased degree of "patriotism".

Political
A major focus of hooliganism is rooted in politics. World conflicts and player actions regarding those can increase the level of hostility from hooligans. For example, the BLM movement had a profound impact on the world, and even drew entire leagues and nations players to take a knee for the cause. This upset fans across the globe, booing the players who kneeled and in some cases inciting violence. Fans often take the stance that players should stick to their job rather than intermingling with politics. This type of reaction is not limited to football but is seen in all sports, basketball, American football and so on. This can be seen in the treatment of players such as Colin Kaepernick in the NFL who has been isolated from the sport since his protests, being labelled as disrespectful towards the country.

Anti-Hooligan Measures
The violence perpetrated by hooligans is somewhat of a dying phenomena although experiencing some surges around 2015. The mid 1900s was when hooliganism was at its highest rate, however, police and clubs themselves have taken strides to prevent the level of hooliganism, and today, violence at games has decreased significantly not only in the amount that's taking place, but in the level of the conflict as well.

One example of anti-hooligan measures are some of the new rules that stadiums have put in place regarding alcohol. Some stadiums don't allow fans to bring their alcoholic drinks up to their seats; they're only permitted to the lower levels near the concessions. In addition, bottles are typically plastic, as to avoid the threat of fans hurling them at other fans or even players. In some cases, specifically in major tournaments, more extreme measures have to be put in place to help reduce the chances of violence. For example, at the 2016 Euros, officials recommended a complete ban on alcohol. In the event that violence results in riots that go out of control, police utilize tools like tear gas and water cannons in an attempt on crowd control. This can sometimes lead to increased violence from the hooligans.

Media Portrayal
The media portrayal of hooliganism is present in tv, news and all sorts of public media. The recently released Beckham documentary demonstrates an example of this in episode 2: "Seeing Red". Here, the limited series shows a dummy of David Beckham being hung by a noose outside of an English pub following his red card versus Argentina leading to Englands knockout in the 1998 World Cup.

Football hooliganism has been depicted in films such as The Firm, ID, EuroTrip, Cass, The Football Factory, Green Street, Rise of the Footsoldier and Awaydays. There are also many books about hooliganism, such as The Football Factory and Among the Thugs. Some critics[who?] argue that these media representations glamorise violence and the hooligan lifestyle. Soccer hooliganism has also been depicted in You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee, an episode of The Simpsons, and the video game Hooligans: Storm Over Europe.