Football hooliganism is sometimes glamorized and seen as a symbol of oppositions to many things that many people find oppressive. Police, “the man,” and large profit organizations, and disrespectful rival firms may be some of the opposition that they face. The fact of the matter is, football hooliganism is dangerous in many different ways. This blog will address the dangers that football hooliganism can bring not only to the football matches, but also to areas around and far away from the matches as well.

While football hooliganism primarily consists of competitive violence between rival football firms, their violent behavior is not restricted to inter-group fighting, but may include missile throwing, vandalism, attacks on the police and regular fans, or racial abuse. I spoke in another blog about racism so I will not go to in depth about this subject, but I will speak about it again. Racism offends not only the person or group you are aiming the insults to, but also bystanders that hear and are present when the slander is being spoken. Vandalism and the missile throwing will also put innocent people in harm. Hooliganism is not only senseless, but very childish and dangerous as well.

Second, the violent behavior of hooligan groups takes places not only at or in the immediate vicinity of football grounds, but also in other contexts, for example city centers, pubs, clubs or railway stations. The movement of the violence once again puts many innocent bystanders in danger, but also destroys property as well. These acts of violence affect the entire city due to the actions of a few hooligans that best express themselves by fighting. With these fights happening in public places, police need to be called and this further wastes the cities money due to the allocation of police to this incident. Police could much rather be working cases and helping solve crimes, but the violence of the hooligans take them away from their other more important duties.

Third, football hooliganism involves a great deal of symbolic opposition and ritualized aggression, which is easily confused with ‘real’ violence. This aspect of football hooliganism is not dangerous for the public, but dangerous for the football hooligans themselves. The hooligans that create their own groups for the sole purpose to praise their team and bash other teams are walking a very dangerous road. Innocent supporters that don’t know the true society and brotherhood of the hooligans are often looked at rivals and highly sought after to be fought. This misunderstanding can lead to great bodily harm to these mere fan club members who don’t really deserve the beating.

Hooligans live by a code and sometimes they die by a code. Violence is just part of the game that they play to gain respect for themselves and their football club. Innocent bystanders are often a common place in the riots that they create.

References:

http://www.cafyd.com/HistDeporte/htm/pdf/4-16.pdf

"Preventing Football Hooliganism." Footballnetwork.org - "our goal is education". N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2010. .

To many people, the act of football hooliganism is seen as unruly and often law breaking behavior that needs to be handled in some way or another. In the past decades, football clubs and organizations have been putting efforts in on the prevention of football hooliganism. These preventative practices these organizations implement, reveal that successful prevention depends on the efforts of a variety of institutions and agents. They also highlight the importance of continuous, locally grounded commitment to the prevention of football hooliganism.

Police are often criticized for their brutal type of enforcement whenever a hooliganism problem seems to arise in a soccer match. Riots often caused by two rival football firms are usually ended by the violence from another group, the police. Police take a reactive form of policing that combat the hooliganism only once it arises as a problem, but in the 1980’s a shift in policing tactics occurred. Instead of taking a reactive enforcement pattern, the police had developed a more proactive form of policing. By using intelligence gathered through the means of co-departmental cooperation between different countries, football hooliganism patterns can be studied and predicted. This proactive type of policing is still in a trial and error phase, but more and more riots are being prevented.

Other efforts made to prevent the hooliganism violence before and after a football match is the cooperation between local governments and football clubs, otherwise known as fan projects. Different countries have slight variations on how they dictate their fan projects, but the gist of a fan project is the improving of relations between the football hooligans and the football organization that they are supporting and the police. For example, German football attempts to prevent football hooliganism by improving the relations between fans, clubs and police. While in the Netherlands, fan projects aim to improve the relations between clubs and militant fan groups, and the social skills and career opportunities of convicted hooligans. Whether in Germany or in the Netherlands, organizations and governments are making more proactive efforts in lessening the violence caused by hooligans in different countries.

The heart of the problem of football hooliganism lies at the football club’s historical lack of interest in preventing or reducing football hooliganism. Football clubs often would give away free tickets and arrange travel for hooligans in order to further support the club. A good example of this behavior can be seen from the actions of FC Barcelona, a Spanish football club. FC Barcelona was known for their hooliganistic violence, and the organizations lack of reaction to the violence, but in 2003 things changed for the football club. Due to the election of a stringent new manager, Joan Laporta, he implemented a new zero tolerance policy to hooliganism violence. FC Barcelona now makes it a point to react to fans violence by working on club/fan relations and informing the hooligans that there will be a lifetime ban of games if any one is caught inciting violence during games.

The good practices highlighted in this blog indicate that the prevention of football hooliganism depends on the efforts of a variety of institutions and agents. If there is no relationship building and active enforcement in accordance to hooliganism violence there will be no improvement on the violence during games. The main goal for football clubs and police deportments is the lower the football violence and the only way to do so is the continuous responses to problems that arise.

References:

"Psychology and Crime News / Football hooliganism: comparing self-awareness and social identity theory explanations." Psychology and Crime News / A place to collate information of interest in a forensic psychological context. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Aug. 2010. .

http://www.cafyd.com/HistDeporte/htm/pdf/4-16.pdf

An interesting correlation that needs to be examined in relations and for the true understanding of football hooliganism is the types of demographics involved between firms in England. Football firms are made up of a wide variety of people from all walks of life. The beautiful game is said to be consider a sports that can be enjoyed by the masses. A sport being enjoyed by the masses brings in all types of fans. People who involve themselves in soccer firms have a certain type of mind set that seem to always be ready to fight and get into trouble. The interesting aspect of the hooligans are that they are not all young in shape men, this blog will be analyzing all types of demographics of males that are drawn into this type of fanism.

The first and most obvious demographic that needs to be looked at is the male and female ratio in these English football firms. Football hooliganism has been seen as first occurring in the late 1960's, and peaking in the late 1970's. During these time periods having a woman in a firm would be unheard of, even unspeakable. Now, on the other hand, women are not only accepted but also welcomed. Women are much more emotional than men, and this shows in their actions for the football firms. They are willing to take more risks such as streaking, and are also used to lure other male firms into traps. Just this year, a 15-year-old girl was arrested for football hooliganism, which marks the youngest female hooligan in England. Even though there are still very few women in English football firms, they are gaining wide spread respect for their risks and actions for their football club.

Football hooliganism for the past 50 years has been seen as a juvenile crime and gave rise to delinquency. For a certain period this notion of youngsters creating mayhem was not a rumor, but fact. As the years passed and these young boys became men, a whole new dynamic was created concerning football firms in England. These middle-age men began to organize into structured groups and began to recruit young bucks ready for a fight. This progression brought the first organized football firms of England. There are no definite age statistics recorded, but from first hand accounts, about 30% of hooligans are over the age of 35. The older members of the firms take a more administrative role and keep the football firm functioning as a whole rather than brining the mob mentality into the group.

Racism is a very large problem in European football, but for some reason, the racism does not flow into the football firms. Racism is the persecution of a group or type of person due to their race, religion, skin color, or ethnicity. The largest type of racism seen in Europe is the racism against blacks that play and cheer for the football clubs. Football firms on the other hand, have no racial lines or creeds. Football firms are seen as a brotherhood where everyone is an equal because you fight right next to each other. There are no racial lines of borders, just brotherhood. For the past few years more and more ethnicities have been entering into the football firms. Some reasons might be just the pure love of the game or the simple fact of immigration into England. The simple fact of the matter is, racial demographics in football firms do not matter. Brotherhood is brotherhood just as long as the man or woman your fighting next to has your back.

References:

FOOTBALL HOOLIGANISM. (n.d.). The University of Liverpool. Retrieved July 21, 2010, from http://www.liv.ac.uk/footballindustry/hooligan.html

Girl, 15, becomes youngest female football hooligan. - Free Online Library. (n.d.). News, Magazines, Newspapers, Journals, Reference Articles and Classic Books - Free Online Library. Retrieved July 21, 2010, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Girl,+15,+becomes+youngest+f

Marsh, P. (1978). Aggro, the Illusion of Violence. London: Dent, London.

Football firms are groups of men who attach themselves to football clubs and fight firms from other clubs, sometimes a long way in time and space from a match. Football firms are seen as freedom fighters, and to others, they seem as common street criminals. This blog will only be focusing on football firm activities solely in England due to the fact that football firms exist all over the world. To understand why these men decide to form these firms and fight for their football teams, the reader must first understand the factors that place these men into these firms.

One factor that draws these British men from all ages into football firms is just the pure love for their game. Football teams in England are organized into teams from different cities all round the country. This means that different cities have different football firms, which sometimes culminate into random fights whenever two rival firms meet on the street. Green Street Hooligans, a 2005 film depicting the life of and English football firm, explains this idea of “pure love of the game” best with a quote. “It’s football mate, you do what you gotta do.” This quote in essence explains one important factor of a hooligan’s state of mind. They understand the risk that they are taking and they perform for their football team as the team performs for them on the field. Some might call this crazy or irrational, but for many, this is life.

Football not only shows the sense of pride and love of the game, it also clearly shows camaraderie between the men on the football field and the men in the firms. The sense of belonging and being part of a group has been a desire for every person on this Earth. The sense of belonging to a group is not only comforting, but it provides the person pride and happiness. A large part of being in a football firm is standing along side your brothers and know that they are there to protect you and help you achieve a common goal, which is usually to win the fist fight against a rival firm. In the face of danger, camaraderie is one of they aspects that grows in leaps and bounds. Another quote from Green Street Hooligans says, “You know the best part? It isn't knowing that your friends have your back. It's knowing that you have your friends' back.” Often, these football firms are in very dangerous fights, and the only person you can rely on is you and your friend besides you. Men seen to forge strong relationships in the face of danger, and football firms are no exceptions.

Whatever the reasons may be for joining, these men in their football firms love the sport and love each other. The brotherhood is forged and they fight and defend the honor of their football team with everything they got. It is difficult to understand why these men decide to form these firms and fight for their football teams but they do and these guys enjoy every second of it.

References:

Football Hooligans | Ultras. (n.d.). Football Hooligans | Ultras. Retrieved July 5, 2010, from http://www.football-hooligans.org/index.html

Green Street Hooligans (2005). (n.d.). The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Retrieved July 5, 2010, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385002/

lasses., t. w. (n.d.). Football Violence in Europe - Executive Summary. Social Research - Social Trends Analysis. Retrieved July 5, 2010, from http://www.sirc.org/publik/fvexec.html#_VPID_7

From the Greeks, Romans, and to the Native Americans the sport of football (soccer)or similar forms of it has been played for nearly two thousand years. American colonists in the 1620's were the first to create official rules and regulation for the game and integrated the sport into college athletics. Whether football originated in America or Greece it does not matter, what matters is the popularity, fame, and following that football has created for itself.

The odd fact about football is that the sport is seen differently around the world. In Europe it is seen as a way of life, in South America it's an avenue to fame and riches, and in North America it's seen as a social get together for mothers while watching their children play. football has always had a mystique about it that all other sports do not. This sport has the ability to elate a whole country and deflate the hopes for another in one single kick by a player. It is a shame that some countries still see this beautiful game just as a mere pass time.

Rather than trying to convince readers that football is the best sport in the world, I want to focus on one fan base, Football firms of England. England is considered the birthplace of present day football and has the fans to prove it. This blog will examine many aspects of fans ranging from their methods of support for their teams all the way to their morals that they all take very seriously. I intend this blog not only to be entertaining but very informative as well playing to the fact that not many people know much about football firms to begin with.

References:

About the USA>Sports>Soccer. (n.d.). About the USA . Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://usa.usembassy.de/sports-soccer.htm

article, r. t., & you'll. (n.d.). History of Soccer. Soccer Fans Info. Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.soccer-fans-info.com/history-of-soccer.html