Football Hooliganism Football Hooliganism Steve Frosdick and Peter Marsh Published by Willan Publishing Culmcott House Mill Street, Uffculme Cullompton, Devon EX15 3AT, UK Tel: +44(0)1884 840337 Fax: +44(0)1884 840251 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by Willan Publishing c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300, Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA Tel: +001(0)503 287 3093 Fax: +001(0)503 280 8832 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.isbs.com © Steve Frosdick and Peter Marsh 2005 The rights of the authors to be identified as the authors of this book have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other- wise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. First published 2005 ISBN 1-84392-129-4 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Printed and bound by T.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall Contents Contents Preface ix About the authors xi Acknowledgements xiii Foreword by Jim Chalmers (President, Football Safety Officers’ Association) xv Part I Introduction 1 1 Introduction 3 Overview of the book 6 Aims of the book 7 Chapter summary 9 2 Football violence in history 10 Folk-football: the origins of the violence 10 Development and codification 13 A history of disorder 16 A history of disaster 23 Chapter summary 24 Part II Defining Football Hooliganism 25 3 The nature and extent of British football hooliganism 27 Introduction 27 The nature of ‘football hooliganism’ 27 Empirical approaches? 31 The extent of British football hooliganism 34 England disorder overseas 43 Chapter summary 45 4 Levels of football violence in Europe 46 Introduction 46 v Football Hooliganism Levels of violence 47 Chapter summary 55 5 European fan profiles and behaviour 57 Introduction 57 Germany 57 Italy 58 France 61 The Netherlands 63 Austria 65 Scandinavia 65 Stages of development 69 Chapter summary 70 Part III Explaining Football Hooliganism 73 6 An overview of British theories of football hooliganism 77 Introduction 77 Populist explanations 80 ‘Hooligan porn’ 80 British academic explanations 81 Who are the hooligans? 84 Chapter summary 85 7 British theoretical perspectives in detail 86 Introduction 86 The Harrington Report 87 The Lang Report 88 Ian Taylor 89 Subculture theories 90 Media amplification 92 Ethogenic approach 93 The Leicester School 94 Ethnographic approaches 97 Chapter summary 101 8 Theoretical approaches from Europe and beyond 102 Introduction 102 Italy 102 Germany 106 The Netherlands 108 Other European research 109 Conclusions on European theoretical approaches 109 Towards a world understanding of football hooliganism? 111 vi Contents Chapter summary 112 9 The media and football hooliganism 113 Introduction 113 History 114 Theory 115 The role of the media in other European countries 119 Conclusion 121 Chapter summary 123 10 Football violence and alcohol 125 Introduction 125 The ‘alcohol–violence connection’ 125 Anomalies in alcohol controls 128 The effectiveness of the controls? 129 Culture and alcohol 130 The roligans 131 The police view 132 Unexpected consequences of alcohol bans 132 The case of the Scots 134 Conclusion 135 Chapter summary 136 11 Racism and football fans 138 Introduction 138 Forms of racism 139 Is football hooliganism motivated by racism? 141 Anti-racism initiatives 142 The European dimension 146 Conclusion 148 Chapter summary 150 Part IV Tackling Football Hooliganism 153 12 Policing football hooliganism 155 Introduction 155 Policing prior to Euro ’96 155 Policing Euro ’96 161 Developments in policing since Euro ’96 164 Chapter summary 167 13 Repressive social controls 169 Introduction 169 Legal provisions 169 vii Football Hooliganism New and refurbished grounds 172 Technology 173 Government reports 174 Chapter summary 176 14 More proactive and preventive measures 178 Introduction 178 ‘Friendly but firm’ policing 178 Risk and safety management 180 Fan culture and coaching 182 New directions in tackling football hooliganism 186 Chapter summary 188 References and selected bibliography 189 Useful websites 204 Index 205 viii Preface Preface In 1984, Manchester United travelled to Turin to play Juventus in the semi- finals of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. To discourage people from travelling, the Manchester club did not sell any tickets for the match – a sort of unofficial ban. But some supporters went anyway, hoping to get their tickets in Italy. The journalist Bill Buford went with them, fascinated as to why a club would want to ban its own supporters: There was a roar, everybody roaring, and the English supporters charged into the Italians. In the next second I went down. A dark blur and then smack: I got hit on the side of the head by a beer can – a full one – thrown powerfully enough to knock me over. As I got up, two policemen, the only two I saw, came rushing past, and one of them clubbed me on the back of the head. Back down I went. I got up again, and most of the Italians had already run off, scattering in all directions. But many had been tripped up before they got away. Directly in front of me – so close I could almost reach out to touch his face – a young Italian, a boy really, had been knocked down. As he was getting up, an English supporter pushed the boy down again, ramming his flat hand against the boy’s face. He fell back and his head hit the pavement, the back of it bouncing slightly. Two other Manchester United supporters appeared. One kicked the boy in the ribs. It was a soft sound, which surprised me. You could almost hear the impact of the shoe on the fabric of the boy’s clothing. He was kicked again – this time very hard – and the sound was still soft, muted. The boy reached down to protect himself, to guard his ribs, and the other English supporter kicked him in the face (Buford 1991: 86). Buford graphically describes the social phenomenon we shall be examining in this book. Why is it that sports spectators and football fans engage in violent behaviours? What type of people get involved? How much violence ix Football Hooliganism is there? What kinds of violence are we talking about? And what do the authorities and other interested parties do both to prevent the violence starting and to deal with it if it does break out? This book provides a broad analysis of football hooliganism. Unlike previous books on the subject it is not concerned with a single theoretical perspective but rather to provide a critical overview, discussing the various historical, criminological, sociological, psychological and social policy approaches to the subject. Three fallacies provide themes which run through the book: the notion that football hooliganism is new, that it is a uniquely football problem and that it is an English phenomenon. The book examines the long history of football-related violence, the problems in defining the nature of football hooliganism, the data available on the extent of football hooliganism across Europe, a detailed review of the various theories about who the hooligans are and why they behave as they do, and an analysis of policing and social policy in relation to tacking football hooliganism. The book is intended to appeal to a wide readership, whether the academic, the student or the lay reader. We hope you enjoy it – and that you understand something more about football hooliganism as a result. Steve Frosdick and Peter Marsh June 2005 x About the authors About the authors Peter Marsh, a chartered psychologist, is a director of the Social Issues Research Centre and of MCM Research Ltd. Peter studied at Ruskin College, Oxford where he obtained a Diploma in Social Studies, and subsequently at University College, Oxford where he gained his BA in psychology and doctorate. He is still known for his early work on football hooliganism, conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His first book, Rules of Disorder published in 1978, is still a set text on the subject. This was followed by work on problems in pubs and the connections between drinking and disorder, begun in 1977 when he was Co-director of the Contemporary Violence Research Centre in Oxford University. Further work on aspects of aggression and violence has included research with youth gangs in New York and Chicago and with youth groups in France and Italy. His other main research interests have been in the field of non-verbal behaviour, leading to a number of books. Gestures, written with Desmond Morris and others, won a Choice ‘academic book of the year’ award in the USA. Books such as Eye to Eye (Book of the Month Club in the USA) and Tribes were the subject of extensive promotional tours in the UK and USA. His most recent ‘popular’ book, Lifestyle, is concerned with people’s relationship to their homes and their environments. Other works include Aggro: The Illusion of Violence. A further, continuing research interest is in the role of the motorcar and driving behaviour. With Peter Collett he is the author of Driving Passion: The Psychology of the Car. Between 1979 and 1990 Peter was a senior lecturer in psychology at Oxford Brookes University and was made an honorary senior research fellow on his departure from full-time teaching.