Stadium changes

In the early years of football in England, the stadiums were comprised of a mixture of standing and sitting areas.  This continued until the early 1990's.  This meant that there was no limit to the amount of people in the crowd watching a match, and that people could be next to someone that was a fan of the other team.  This more or less helped the crowd violence and hooliganism.  There would be so many people that you would constantly be being crushed and moved by the crowd.  So, in 1990, Lord Taylor had the bright idea to encourage each team to convert their stadiums to have only seating, and no standing areas.  This would allow the ticket masters to control who was going in, how many got in, and where they sat.  Also, the stadiums were engineered to allow the police easy access in and out of the rows.  But even then, the violence still happens.

All too recent

So, this football violence is not just a thing of the past, that's for sure.   Here is a link to some that happened not all that long ago in Nottingham-shire.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-14472172

In light of some of the things that I have read about this month, this isn't actually all that bad.  Yes, it's unfortunate, but no one died and no one was maimed brutally.  So this is probably one of the more mundane examples that I could find.

Heysel Stadium disaster

In 1985, there was a game between Liverpool and Juventus that was played at the Heysel Stadium in Belgium, where 39 people were killed and around 600 were wounded because of the violence. This happened because the supporters received tickets to sit in the same area in the stands, and the English started to attack the Italians, who fled back toward their end, but there was a wall in the way.  The crush of people had so much force that it knocked it down killing the 39 people in the process.  Then there was an all out fight during which the captains of both teams were pleading with there fans to stop. I guess it eventually stopped, but the damage had been dealt.  The result: English teams were banned from European tournaments for 5 years, and Liverpool for 6.

Origins

I read in a couple  books about the hooligan issue.  One was talking about the early 1900's in between the World Wars, and it said that there wasn't really an issue in England.  Now in Scotland, there seemed to be a serious issue especially between the Celtic and Rangers' supporters.  That is kind of understandable because those teams kind of signify a religious difference in Catholicism and Protestantism.  But there were still a few incidents in England, just not nearly to the levels of the 1980's.  Interestingly , the other book pointed out that the hooligans pretty much stay to themselves, and don't attack those of higher social status or any different way of life.  They just stick to beating up the rival team's firm.  So, in that respect it doesn't really seem like the working class is fighting against the system.  But they hate the police, and try to outwit them, so it does sort of seem like they are fighting against the system.

The Guardian

I was looking up some newspaper articles today to try and find some reports of the fights.  But all I could find were reports on how the football related arrests have gone down.  It is true that the problems with football hooligans have gone down, but there are still more than 3,000 arrests in a season. So, it seems as though the media is trying to make it seem like it's not really a problem. I did find out about this one fight that was apparently really big and there was a video on youtube about it so, here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulESIRFKWs&feature=related

Another take on it

So, I read another article about the sociological aspect of the football hooliganism.  This one talked about how the main reasons behind it were many time political, especially in Spain.  The Catalan teams' supporters are very politically tied to their teams.  They also said that the media coverage of the issue and the police interventions probably make it worse. Many times the tensions on the field affect the crowd as well, but this violence would happen while in the stadium.  It also argued that much of the violence away from the football grounds has very little correlation to the teams.  The games more or less provide an excuse for the firms to engage in a fight, which is many times organized and planned.  Of course, if the clubs are huge rivals, this would add another dimension to the fight as the supporters would most likely hate the rival team's supporters that much more.

Hooligan happenings

Ok, so this article didn't answer my question...but it did give me some interesting statistics.  It talked about when and where of the football violence, as well as the number of injuries incurred and weapons used.  Basically, according to the stats, football violence doesn't actually happen that often.  About one in 20 matches has a violence report, where as only one in more than 8,000 fans is arrested.  This of course is referring to the whole year, and is therefore not technically applicable to every match, as one match may have a much higher average.  Also, as most of the violence occurs after the match and away from the grounds, the violence might not even be reported.  So, unfortunately, the stats are only part of the picture.  But I did fond it interesting that there weren't that many incidents.  I figured that each match would have a gang fight afterward, but obviously that is not totally the case.

Ex-thug talking

One of the articles I just read was talking about the football violence in the 1980's, when it was at its worst.  The authors interviewed a man who had been involved in the violent lifestyle, but had become a Christian, thus changing his ways.  He said that one of the main reasons he got involved in the firms was because of his need to belong to something.  That, coupled with a poor upbringing, almost pushed him into gang violence.  So, it seems as though many of the thugs are just like normal thugs.  But what about the ones that have seemingly great lives and jobs and families?  I will have to do more research.

Old thugs

Interestingly, the thugs seem to almost grow out of their violent habits.  While in the "firm," they live double lives, one that is very violent and one that is quite the opposite.  Some of the people in the gangs have very good jobs, or even families of their own.  But they eventually reach a time where they become less violent and more domicile. Whether it's because they want to stay out of jail, or if it's because of another reason, it just happens.  It usually happens while they are in their thirties.  Yes, they still love their club, but they don't go to the games with as much frequency or with violent intentions.

One answer

"This is, if you like, the answer to the hundred-dollar question: why do young males riot every Saturday?  They do it for the same reason that another generation drank too much, or smoked dope, or took hallucinogenic drugs, or behaved badly or rebelliously. Violence is their antisocial kick, their mind-altering experience, an adrenaline-induced euphoria that might be all the more powerful because it is generated by the body itself, with, I was convinced, many of the same addictive qualities that characterize synthetically produced drugs."
-Bill Buford

Crowd mentality

Buford was describing the crowd mentality today as I was reading.  He said that it wasn't necessarily a bunch of ruffians out to get violence, but that it was actually normal people with great jobs and families.  The government always finds some "leaders" to blame, but there aren't really leaders in a crowd.  There are just people whose minds are more affected by the hype of the crowd.  He also said that sometimes, the football violence is almost planned, even though the police try their hardest to stop it from happening.  The supporters go to the games expecting violence.  It's all very strange.

Waiting for a goal

I read about how the individuality of each person in a crowd at a football match in England pretty much disappears when the game begins.  No matter what happens before or after the game, there is a certain herd mentality that takes over each person and they become a crowd.  All that tension needs to be let out, and that could be a reason for the violence after the games.

Interesting findings

While reading today, I read that the people in the football gangs pretty much regard the games as a religion.  They are practically a cult for their team.  This could potentially be the reason for the gang in the first place.  I do not know exactly how they started quite yet as I am focusing on the "what are they?" question.  They also see the violence as good and the police as bad, which is quite the opposite of the normal citizen's view.  I still don't know why this is, but I will find out.

Second day

I read some more in the Buford book today where I found out something very interesting to me.  The people that are a part of these gangs don't see themselves as hooligans.  That is one of the things that they make sure that reporters know.  They repeat it to Buford over and over to make sure he knows that.  Also, they do this thing called "living on the jib" which pretty much means that they want to make money instead of lose it when they go see their team play.  This is accomplished by sneaking into airplanes, mass stealing, and other such actions.  But they are not violent hooligans (according to them).  They also hate pretty much everything besides themselves, and the things that make England who it is, such as the Queen.

Getting started

Yesterday I was able to get a start on my project.  I began with reading the book called Among the Thugs by Bill Buford, an American who was living in Britain.  I learned that there was kind of a hierarchy within the gangs themselves, and that the gang members weren't necessarily the scum of society.  Many actually had jobs and/or families.  They also cannot stand to miss a match for their home team regardless of where it is being played.