Football Hooliganism

[abertom]

Made I chuckle!

Nice work there Jason.

Back on topic why do 'supporters' go to football matches looking for fights? Why are their lives so pathetic? I don't mean innocents who get caught up though

 

[Fareham Grecian]

Another thread buggered up. Nice job.

Thanks, but I think you're being too modest. You did all the work.

 

[Red Bill]

Back on topic why do 'supporters' go to football matches looking for fights? Why are their lives so pathetic? I don't mean innocents who get caught up though

Tribalism, nationalism, fear, a feeling of powerlessness, machismo, who knows without carrying out a serious psycho-social study? What I would question is how many actually do go looking for fights, and I'm making a distinction here between football 'casuals' who actively seek out confrontation with rivals, although generally pre arranged and well away from football grounds, and those who will stand up and fight if attacked rather than running away and avoiding violence. Although the two groups put together actually make up a tiny percentage of fans.

In the last ten years i have never witnessed any fighting inside a ground, and only seen it on a handful of occasions outside, most of which was handbags and never resulting in any serious violence. So why then do we see it happening abroad? Or at least reportedly happening. Maybe events like the Euros attract right wing nationalist thugs who are actually more interested in fighting than football, using the opportunity to wave their flags and flex their xenophobic muscles in a misguided attempt to prove their national superiority, as we've seen with Russian fans who seem to think there's a hooligan competition going on. Maybe its heavy handed policing whipping up problems that don't really exist. Personally I think both of these are made significantly worse by the media reporting, raising expectations of trouble, focussing in on one or two trouble makers and blowing it out of proportion, telling the world that the english hooligans are coming and they better be prepared. And what happens? They get prepared, the French or German or Russian or Polish hooligans get prepared, the police get prepared, the locals get prepared, the media get prepared, the tension builds, the atmosphere gets nasty and what do you know? Trouble erupts and the media get to write the story they came for!

You see it in the language they use in their reports like, "clashes between fans" when we've all seen plain as day on TV England fans being attacked. Why didn't the headlines read "England fans attacked by Russian hooligans"? Because it doesn't fit the story they went there to write, that they know will be so easily swallowed by tabloid readers worldwide. Why are England under threat of expulsion from the tournament when english fans were innocent victims? Why aren't France under the same threat when its been admitted that it was 100 or so locals confronting England fans that caused the first trouble in Marseille? Why aren't Germany under threat after their fans caused trouble and were arrested in Lisle? Because that's not what the media want, its not what UEFA want, and it seems not to be what our government wants, because the middle class intellegencia wants to portray football fans as ignorant working class thugs, that way we don't have to be listened to.

I'm not saying there's never football violence or that no one goes looking for a fight and I'm certainly not standing up for hooligans, I hate them, it was because of violence in the 70s that I wasn't allowed to go to matches on my own. What I am saying however, is that the reports of England fans are wildly exaggerated and until the media, the government and the FA grow a pair and stop automatically accepting its England fans' fault, the resentment will grow amongst those travelling fans and and the supposed violence will become a reality.

 

[Billy The Fish]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

I wouldn't have thought that this particular law would take much proving in the case of a discussion about football violence.

 

[Billy The Fish]

There's 3714 replies on Tisdale Must Go but I don't recall him being likened to the Führer....

 

[Spoonz Red E]

As he's a season ticket holder, can we use the Eddie Hitler escape clause?

 

[Mick Brownstone]

An old allotment pal, Ted Godwin, used to grow award-winning cabbages then use them to make a delicious dressed salad. He called it Godwin's Slaw.

 

[arthur]

Tribalism, nationalism, fear, a feeling of powerlessness, machismo, who knows without carrying out a serious psycho-social study? .

Exactly. They are the paramilitary wing of vote leave!

 

[tavyred]

Good to see the lamentable tactics of the CRS and Gendarmerie are beginning to come under sharp focus. Two sides to the story in France.

 

[Antony Moxey]

What's the CRS?