Within the 1980s England was undergoing a dramatic change.
With Margret Thatcher at the forefront of it. There were many changes in
industry affecting the working man, with the proposal to increase mechanisation
in mines which led to strikes by the miners. Typically miners came from working
class families, who worked hard all week and Saturday mornings and then in the
afternoon would go to watch their local football team. Football violence had
been on the rise since the early 1970s and really came to a peak during the
1980s and the problems for English working culture probably enhanced this, it
was a chance for people to get relief from the stress of their working lives.
Football Hooliganism was a big problem for England, with on average 25 major
incidents reported each year. This gradually increased with the rise of Firms
springing up by the majority of major English clubs. I will be looking at the
rise of football hooliganism and what has been done since the 1980s to prevent
such serious incidents, and whether that has worked or not, comparing the
reports of hooliganism now compared to the extreme events of the 1980s. By
prevalent I mean how significant these offences are and how common and serious
cases of hooliganism are. By hooliganism I mean violence and discrimination,
groups of fans targeting others with the intent of hurting them.
The events of the 70s- One major incident of the 1970s was
the stabbing of a young Blackpool fan at their home ground Bloomfield road, by
a Bolton Wanderers fan. The victim was only 17 years of age when his life
tragically ended on the 24th of August 1974. This particular tragedy
heavily impacted on the decision to introduce segregation of fans and fencing
at football matches because things were getting far too out of hand. The
stabbing changed the lives of so many people, so much so that a memorial was
still held 40 years later by Blackpool fans to mark the anniversary of the
tragedy. Football Hooliganism was just dealt with incredibly reluctantly by the
police during the 1970s, so many people took part in the activities and many
were never around for the police to catch them, they had all left the scene of
the crime they commit, most hooligan crimes were petty, most commonly
vandalism, however sometimes cases were a bit more serious, with assault and
Grievous Bodily Harm and like in the case young 17 year old Kevin Olsen, the
Blackpool fan mentioned above, murder also took place in what was a dark age
for football culture. One major problem was that there were no surveillance of
football fans, no CCTV cameras or way of getting evidence for those who
committed the crimes, most of the time, if they were caught during the 70s,
hooligans would just be imprisoned overnight before release in the morning.
Incidents like this and many small incidents led to a huge uproar in the 1980s
with English violence becoming much more prevalent at the majority of big
games, many incidents occurred that had a major impact on the way society
viewed football fans in General. The amount of arrests peaked in the 1988-89
season with 6145 arrests being made across the professional English game, this
doesn’t mean this was the exact number of cases, it means this is the number of
people who got caught and detained for their actions, and realistically only a
small minority actually did get caught.
One major changing point in the 1980s concerned English
football fans in European matches. All English teams were banned from playing
in Europe in 1985 due to crowd troubles caused by Liverpool fans, at the event
the rioting forced a wall to collapse causing the death of 39 people and
injuries to over 400. Liverpool were playing a European match against Juventus
when the violence broke out and this tragedy happened. This incident highlights
just how violent these fights and riots were, it wasn’t just a small scrap
between a few people, these events happened on a wide scale and clearly many
people’s lives were affected by the tragedy that happened. None of this
behaviour of course is justified and rightly so, English teams were banned from
playing in Europe for 5 years by the football association. A ban which Prime
Minister Margret Thatcher agreed with. This step marked the beginning of
realisation to the English Football association marking a gradual clamp down on
football hooliganism.
Another clear indication of out of control Hooliganism
within the 1980s was the Kenilworth Road riot on March the 13th
1985. It took place at the stadium of Luton town football clubs ground of
Kenilworth road in an FA cup tie versus Millwall Football club. The game ended
in a 1-0 win to Luton town however the score line was far from what the game
was remembered for. In anger at losing, Millwall fans took to the pitch and
stormed towards opposing fans, where they then battled with policemen.Millwall
fans ripped apart the stadium as they went destroying chairs, tearing them out
of stands and using them as missiles to throw at any opposition, on that one
night, 47 were injured, 33 of those being police officers. After all of this
violence only 31 arrests were made and 29 members were charged. A total of
£60,000 worth of damage was done to the ground and nearby railway station. The
main issue with this was that much more could’ve been done to prevent so many
casualties. The tickets for the game were not all sold prior to the match day,
this was a major factor as it meant Millwall fans could easily outnumber police
and home fans by buying tickets on the day of the game, meaning there weren’t
enough people to control them if violence broke out. Also problems had been
occurring all the way through the game with it being stopped 4 times. If the
game had been abandoned it could’ve prevented trouble but it could’ve also
enhanced it. This was a clear indication that there just weren’t enough safe
guards in place to protect the innocent people just wanting to attend matches
and clearly things had to change.
The consequences of the riot were a national debate led by
Margret thatcher, she believed a membership card scheme should be introduced to
prevent those looking to cause trouble from attending the game. Millwall
football club was charged £7500 even though that was repealed after protest by
the Millwall manager. The owner of Luton Town football club did not take this
lightly, he banned away supporters from attending Luton matches for 4 years,
saying that he was disappointed because once again the majority had been
punished for the acts of a minority. Luton MP John Carlisle reacted much more
drastically saying we must, I believe, inflict upon these hooligans the sort of
physical pain that they last night inflicted on others."
I managed to get a first-hand interview with Manchester
united fan Jayne Witts (Witts, 2015), who
used to be a season ticket holder for Manchester united football club during
the 1980s, to get some more information on what sort of things used to happen
at these games.One thing that she explained to me was how hooliganism was only
common at away games, as she travelled to matches by coach, the only time fans
attacked at home games was if away fans got sight of their coach. Incidents
like this rarely happened however she could recall one incident of playing
against Chelsea at home, when Chelsea fans met the coach as it was leaving
Manchester and smashed every window of the bus with bricks and rocks and any
rubble they could find, the windscreen was damaged and she recalls how everyone
had to duck underneath the windows so they wouldn’t be hit by the enemy fans
missiles. She described one incident of where in a 1980s away game against
Liverpool, Manchester United fans were held in at the ground by police, to try
to prevent problems, however it just gave Liverpool fans the chance to regroup
in the streets around the ground and wait for the fans to be escorted away by
the police. AS they exited the ground they were set upon by multiple gangs of
fans, she describes them as throwing anything bricks to tree branches. Even
glass bottles were thrown. She can recall the disturbing image of a man next to
her being caught on the side of the head by a glass beer bottle, cutting his
ear and she mentioned how the blood seemed to pour from the side of his face.
This was no place for a young teenage girl, this was no scene anyone should
remember from a football match. During the 1980s, the majority of teams had
gangs called ‘firms’, these were essentially gangs who aimed to fight other
firms when the two teams football fixture came up. Many firms were just
interested in violence and a fight at the game, to show their clubs dominance,
however for example Manchester United’s firm The Red Army, also committed other
crimes, as explained by ex-hooligan Colin Blaney in his book “hotshot”
indicates how certain divisions of The Red Army were known to smuggle drugs,
commit armed robberies and even occasionally committed jail break offences.
This little piece of information clearly indicates how much of a problem
football Hooliganism was during the 1980s, with criminals, hiding behind their
football club, using them as a mask for their criminal activity. It was also
concerning that young teens, looked up to these people as heroes, and wanted to
follow them , this produced a whole new generation of criminals, which was
clearly a problem for the police and the public were becoming more at risk by
wanting to watch their local football team, more at risk season upon season.
With arrest rates becoming higher and higher, change was needed.
During the 1980s, Hooliganism was described as ‘The English
disease’ with the violence spreading fast, it wasn’t long before the
international game was tarnished as well, with England fans now taking their
club firms onto the international stage, this broadcasted England’s problem to
the world. Meaning change was becoming more and more relevant.
One factor which began to have an effect on football
Hooliganism in England was in fact the development of CCTV cameras, these
cameras were introduced for high risk businesses like banks in the 1970s, and
throughout the 1980s became much more widely used. The cameras would be
situated almost everywhere including around stadiums, covering the entrances to
grounds, nearby car parks and public houses. This was vital for the police as
it meant they could closely monitor the cameras to see if any football violence
was about to take place, and if it did it meant they could get to it quicker,
and it provided evidence to begin to impose bans and arrests for the people in
question. This in certain aspects was revolutionary for the game as not only
did it mean that the police had more control, but with Hooligans realising that
more people were getting caught committing hooliganist offences, they themselves
would be less likely to commit those same crimes as now they would be punished
for it. The effects of CCTV were incredible, with it Still influencing the game
today, for example of the First of February 2014, 4 men known to be Queens Park
Rangers fans attacked a London pub which had Burnley fans inside it, the four
men were caught by CCTV cameras and were arrested in 2015, all four men were
given prison sentences and were banding for attending football matches for 6
years under the football spectators act of 1989. I carried out a questionnaire
using the smart survey website, I then posted this on twitter, I got 41 replies
and 24 of the replies said that CCTV was one of the most important factors in
the battle against Hooliganism.
The football spectator’s act of 1989
(Crown, 1989) was another attempt at preventing hooliganism, bought in
to ensure crowd safety it has many branches subsections in which offences are
covered and banning orders and arrests are result of committing any of these
offences. The biggest ban that you can receive is a banning order in which you
receive a large fine, you cannot attend any matches in the country, you cannot
travel abroad, and you are not allowed to enter local towns on match days. This
would of course lower the chances of hooliganism taking place because if you
went against this banning order you could be imprisoned.
Another factor that impacted preventing hooliganism was
police having cameras upon their person, this was vital because it was further
evidence to start charging those who have committed hooliganist crimes. It
meant that when incidents happened, and fans attacked the police, they were
already being recorded, as soon as hooligans began to notice this it would
immediately make them think twice about what they were doing. It meant that
Hooligans stayed clear of the police, so with an increase in police escorts for
away fans, it led to a decrease in incidents. This was revolutionary for the
police fight against hooliganism. From the questionnaire that I carried out I
found out that 17% of the 41 people I asked thought that police with handheld
cameras was beneficial, so clearly compared with CCTV this wasn’t in the fans
perspective the best option.
As for police escorts these also largely restricted the
opportunities for home fans to attack away fans, as security was strong with
large numbers of police surrounding away team coaches, allowing a free pass
straight to the ground. This was key to preventing small outbreaks of
hooliganism and violence on the way to matches. It ensured that overall crowd
safety was almost guaranteed on the way to matches, these prevented the
original outbreak of trouble, which limited other outbreaks because the trouble
often started on the way to the game, so if there wasn’t that original problem
then trouble would be less likely to occur. From the survey I personally
carried out, 38% of the 41 people thought that Hooliganism was prevented
partially by police escorts, this confirms that of the 41 people that I asked,
almost half thought that the escorts were beneficial.
Another factor that contributed to preventing Hooliganism
was more safety with regards to the stadiums themselves, Football stadiums
changed dramatically after the tragic Hillsborough disaster on April the 15th
1989 (liverpoolfc.com, n.d.). With 96
Liverpool fans dying on that day after overcrowding in the stadium. The
incident led to the removal of standing areas in all big English football
stadiums. Standing areas still remained in smaller leagues for lower teams, but
seating was required by all premier league clubs. Not only did this prevent
overcrowding within the ground but it also meant fans charging across stadia to
attack rival fans much more challenging. With areas of segregation between fans
and areas where fans can’t get at each other. This was good because often in
games, away fans would attempt to take control of areas of the stadium where
home fans were situated, by charging it and violently removing any fan that
tried to stop them. This was incredibly common in the 1980s with multiple
reports being mentioned in Dougie and Eddy Brimson’s book “everywhere we go”
which has multiple detailed accounts of football hooliganism. The changes in
safety hugely lowered the chances of violence happening within the ground. From
the research that I carried out and the questionnaire I looked at I discovered
that out of the 41 people I asked 15 people thought that one of the important
reasons why there’s less hooliganism now than there were 30 years ago was
because of all seater stadiums, one person even thought that nowadays more safe
standing areas should be incorporated because hooliganism has been clamped down
upon so much. Another thing to think about is that with the huge re development
of stadiums, clubs now needed to raise ticket prices to allow for the huge
costs of the stadiums, this meant that the stereotypical hooligan couldn’t
afford this ticket price or would refuse to pay such a large amount to watch
people play football. Ticket prices rose in some instances by 200% throughout
the 90s with an adult ticket ranging from £8 at the start of the decade to
£24-30 by the early 2000s, with this still constantly increasing to this day.
Throughout the 1990s, football received an incredible re
vamp within England, with television beginning to broadcast games more
frequently, and paying large money to do so, the way football was broadcast to
the country completely changed, you now didn’t have to travel to the match to
watch it, you could watch it from the comfort of your home. This alone
decreased Hooliganism as less people would have to attend matches. Not only
this but also, the increase in cameras and game poured more money into the
Football associations accounts, meaning they could now afford to further police
matches, and now that the whole world could see clubs on television, no owners
of bigger football clubs wanted their club to be tarnished with the reputation
of violence at their matches, so they too attempted to restrict violence
because to them the club was a business and they didn’t want their business to
be given a bad reputation. Television really put English football on show, it
widened the audience of football from people who wanted to cause trouble to new
people who were developing a thorough passion for the game, more middle classes
were becoming fond of the sport, and who could afford just a little bit more to
pay to watch matches.
Banning orders were the only real legislation introduced to
attempt to prevent hooliganism, the aims of the orders were to catch those committing
hooligan crimes, fine them and then put a ban on them which prevents them from
attending football matches, certain offences come with different banning
orders, for example one ban is a season ban from attending home and away
matches with the club you were caught by, and then also a warning will be sent
out for other clubs to deny you entry, or you can have the same ban for a
longer sentence. For example on the 18th of April 2014, 4 fans were
given lifetime bans for invading the pitch at Wolverhampton wanderers versus
Rotherham united (wolves fans are banned for pitch
invasion, 2014). Wolves decided to press charges on the men, and they
were later fined and given the banning order. The most extreme banning order
that can be expressed in English football is as mentioned above, a ban on
attending any game across the country for 6 years,(only individual clubs can
ban you for life) not being allowed to attend the local town centre on match
days, and not being allowed to travel abroad at all (Rossitter,
2014). This of course changed people who actually did want to support
their team, and separated them from those who were just out and out criminals,
it changed many peoples opinion and gave them a more level head, especially if
their team was in European competitions, and they wanted to travel abroad to
follow their team, or enjoyed watching the national team. From the
questionnaire that I carried out, banning orders were the most popular answer
with regards to why Hooliganism has lessened in the last 30 years (Didcote, 2015), with 29 out of the41 people
saying it’s the reason why, that’s 74%, this clearly shows that when put in
place in the late 1980s it was incredibly influential.
So how much of an impact did these changes towards the late
1980s and throughout the 1990s have on football, looking towards football now.
21st century football is still showing massive improvements from
that of the 90s, more money is being invested now than ever before. Arrest
rates have dramatically lowered since the 1980s, for example in the 2007-2008
season 3616 arrests were made in the top four professional divisions in
England, this is still definitely a large number, however its dramatically
lower compared to 6185 in the 1988-89 season (Conn,
2009). This shows that arrests rates have nearly halved. The figures
from 2007-8 represent that only 0.01% of those who attend matches are being
arrested for hooliganism. This clearly shows that some of the methods of
prevention that I have talked about have worked, or are ongoing and still
working, but clearly with 3616 arrests still made there is clearly still room
for improvement. However from another statistic from 2008, we see that the
police are confident that hooliganism is on a decline, this is because 41% of
matches in 2008 had no police even attend them.
Arrests then further decreased in the 2012-2013 season, with
only 2456 arrests made across all 4 professional divisions in England, with 589
new banning orders, so clearly the banning orders are working, we can conclude
from these two sets of data, with the 2007-08 statistics and 2012-13 statistics
that Hooliganism is still being further prevented, with police doing everything
they can to stamp it out of football all together. However, the lowest season
of arrests ever recorded was the previous year, the 2011-2012 season, where
only 2,363 arrests were made (Cockerton, 2013), so does this mean that from the 2012-2013
statistics that hooliganism is on the rise? I shall look at some instances of
recent times and see how they compare to the extreme events of the 1980s.
Looking at the questionnaire that I created, only 17% of
people who answered knew of a hooliganist incident in the last 10 years, that’s
7 people out of the 41 asked. When later asked to explain what this was, one
fan spoke about ‘fans clashing in the Champions league in Rome’ and another
spoke about domestic hooliganism with ‘nearly all premier league teams having a
“firm” which controls that aspect of the club, for example Manchester City’s
blazing squad who have caused numerous amounts of trouble in the last few
years.’ These were the only two detailed accounts which the people I asked knew
about, this clearly indicates that hooliganism isn’t really a commonly known
thing, in most circumstances, only those who are involved with the groups know
about the events taking place, and wouldn’t be so happy to speak about them.
Another thing I collated in my questionnaire was whether people thought
hooliganism would ever be wiped out completely, and 95% said no it would always
remain a part of the English game. This indicates that even though people don’t
know of cases of Hooliganism they can clearly see that it still exists.
These incidents are now less common, but they still happen.
For example, not that long ago, on the 9th of March, the daily
telegraph had an article entitled ‘Football has not regressed but the FA needs
to react’ This follows an FA cup pitch invasion by Aston Villa fans at their
home ground of Villa park after a local cup victory over rivals West Bromwich
Albion. Villa fans invaded the pitch whilst some West Brom fans reportedly
hurled seats at them, some West Brom players were also seen to be assaulted by
Aston Villa fans as they attempted to leave the pitch, with one player Callum
McManaman reportedly punched. The article points out how CCTV will catch out
those who invaded the pitch, and it states that it does not mean we are
returning to the darker ages of the 70s and 80s.However it does mention how The
FA really needs to hit this publicised action of crime hard, to prevent those
who may attempt to do the same sort of thing.
This circumstance is clearly one that is relatable to those
events of the 1980s, especially with the throwing of seats and violence towards
players, however, the reliability of Newspaper sources does have to be
questioned because they do have to make the event appear extreme to ensure that
people buy a copy of their newspaper, so that needs to be taken into account
when analysing this source. However with the evidence that we have, it is fair
to say that this particular event was similar to one of the 1980s, however
there was such an uproar about it, and the football association were
immediately called into action, which emphasises that there is now no place for
this sort of activity in the game and every incident is treated incredibly
seriously, to try to prevent anything like it happening again, which is clearly
a good sign.
Another incident in the same month was the case of Cambridge
United fan Simon Dobbin, who was left in intensive care on the 24th
March 2015 after being in a fight after his clubs 0-0 draw with Southend United (sport, 2015). The man aged 41 was reportedly set
upon by a group of 15 rival men who gave him a serious head injury, three
arrests were made as the police used CS gas to break up the brawl.
This is clearly an incredibly serious incident, one which
cannot be stopped by CCTV or increased banning orders, because it took place
outside of the ground, 2 hours after the match had finished. This is the
problem with Hooliganism, its moving. It’s often no longer just a competition
to try and better a rival firm during a game or trash the teams local pub, its
moving much further away from the police at stadiums and into towns and cities,
and they are timed attacks and assaults from hooligans who just cannot keep
themselves out of a fight. This is a huge problem for police because with
nearly 350,000 fans attending just premier league games alone every week, how
can the police track what every fan is going to be doing two hours after these
games, despite it being only the small majority that want to go out and commit
these crimes, it’s still a major concern because like in the situation of Simon
Dobbin, he nearly lost his life just because he attended a football match, which
shouldn’t be the case.
Another incident took place on March the 8th
2015, with a Watford fan this time being attacked by a group of Wolves fans
walking back to the train station with a group of friends after the game, the
group were heavily outnumbered and the 44 year old was left in a critical
condition after the attack (association, 2015).
This is another prime example of where the violence isn’t at
the ground, it’s in the surrounding areas, where it’s more hidden and people
are further away from the protection of the police, in streets where there
aren’t as many CCTV cameras and where fans are vulnerable, which is exactly why
it’s done. The problem is that there is very little that the police can do to
prevent these attacks that can happen anywhere, other than making all away fans
be picked up directly outside a ground by bus, which would obviously cost a
vast amount of money and use a lot of police time. Policing and preventing
hooliganism at football matches is already costing a huge amount of money,
around 25 million pounds is spent on policing football events every season,
with these numbers rising as more fans attend matches.
From the cases that I have looked at I am quite surprised at
what I have discovered. I have found out that ultimately, preventing
hooliganism completely will be nearly impossible, and despite arrests at
matches lower than the 1980s, I still feel Hooliganism is a problem within
football that can be limited further. I feel that Hooliganism has not so much
slowed down, although of course arrest figures show that it has, but I think
it’s developed around the legislation that has been put in place. For example
the reason for so much violence at football grounds within the 1980s compared
to now is because back then fans could get away with that, a group of fans
could get into the home fans stand
without other fans realising until it’s too late and a big brawl has broken
out. However they cannot do that now as they will get caught, so they have moved
further away from stadiums and areas where the police are likely to expect
trouble, and have moved into nearby town centres or perhaps quiet streets that
lead to railway stations which fans need to get on. Its developed from a small
scrap between fans that they see as a good bit of fun on a Saturday afternoon,
to an event run by organised criminals, aiming to target fans at their weakest
to boost their reputation amongst other fans, despite not being on such a large
scale as the 1980s events have become much more planned and sinister. It is also
important to remember that it really is the smallest minority of people who
commit such offences, one in every 14000 in 2012-2013. But this does not make
it okay, as I have explored many of the cases recently are incredibly serious
and extreme, leading to long prison sentences and life changing scenarios for
those who are victims to these attacks, which shouldn’t be happening and is
tarnishing English Football.
Another important thing to take into consideration is that
events surrounding hooliganism are sensitive topics, these events have affected
lives, and of course clubs do not openly want to reveal about their fans being
violent so some events may be toned down so not to scare the vast majority of
football fans who enjoy watching their local teams.
To conclude, hooliganism is still incredibly prevalent
within the English modern game, it has changed since the 1980s and there have
been significant improvements, however events of a different kind now take
place, although there may not be as many participants involved in these events,
and there may not be as many arrests, the event still happen and still change
lives, which should not be the case.
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