Disgraceful Behaviour (Hooliganism - the real sport behind football?)

Member Name: mr_shagwell23

Product:	Hooliganism - the real sport behind football?
Date:	30/03/01 (218 review reads)
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Football Hooligans are the scum of the earth, or nasty people anyway! They purposefully go out of their way to cause trouble with rival fans, and then they probably wonder why they get banned from grounds or get targeted by other rival fans.

Introduction
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The problems experienced with hooliganism at the European Championships in June of 2000 highlighted the ever growing problem of English thugs disrupting Championship events.
Why is it that English fans are always causing the problems? Why can't they enjoy themselves and watch their nation play the beautiful game?

The answer is that they aren't actually football fans, rather more thugs wearing England shirts to tarnish the reputation of the English game.
It was found in Euro 2000 that German, Danish and French thugs caused trouble as well, but in England shirts! Not a bad idea, but I find it a disgrace that it was still all blamed on English fans.

Hooliganism has been around for ages, since about the 1940's. This has lead to a decline in football ground attendance's, which means that the minority of (so called) football fans are pushing fans away from watching their favourite team.

It isn't just at a national level that there is hooliganism going on. Derby matches in England and Scotland are always highlighted as 'trouble games', most notably Celtic-Rangers, Liverpool-Everton, Man Utd-Man City and Arsenal-Tottenham.
There is also rivalries in the lower divisions such as Burnley-Blackburn, Wigan-Stoke and Millwall-anyone!

It is disappointing to see that people deem football a suitable place to release their anger and take it out on other people, just because they support a different team.
I can't even begin to imagine why they think it is a suitable place. Some psychologists conducted a survey on hooliganism and the outcome was that the hooliganism we see is a small percentage of hooliganism.
T
his basically means that shouting abuse, throwing coins onto a pitch and waving offensive flags is hooliganism, which happens at nearly every match.
It was also found that hooliganism is a stupid way of males satisfying their masculinity, which I think is pathetic. Who cares about their masculinity when no-one actually likes them?

I love football and many of my mates do as well and we all agree that hooliganism is pathetic, and I can?t see too many woman being impressed by some blokes beating up some other blokes. Proving their masculinity is nothing, behaving like immature idiots is everything!

If the England fans don't get controlled soon it will escalate to the extent in which the English game is tarnished forever and English clubs and the England team get banned from European competition again.
In 1985 English fans were banned from European club competitions because of the behaviour of Liverpool fans before the European Cup Final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. A 'charge' by Liverpool fans caused panic among rival Juventus fans leading to a wall collapse and the death of 39 fans

In 1990, English club sides were re-admitted to European Competitions with no major crowd disorder problems resulting.
However, there were problems at the 1990 World Cup in Italy but this was
blamed on over aggressive policing.
However, problems involving the English at the European Championships in
Sweden in 1992 - which were definitely not caused by overly-aggressive policing - made it clear that hooliganism was not going to go away and the English fans didn't care about getting banned again.

The trouble in Marseille highlighted concerns about the security of other football fans, and Euro 2000 was just the icing on the cake. The yobs are becoming more powerful in the time now when little is being done to stop them.

Solutions (?)
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It is becoming an ever increasing proble
m and I am not satisfied that the authorities are doing everything they possibly can to get rid of hooliganism from football all together.
Its nearly impossible to ban people from grounds as there is too many people that could look similar, and taking a passport away stops nothing because there is always methods of getting abroad.

What they need is a large police force that is gentle with fans, instead of the policing that was witnessed at World Cup 1990.
The police should be given permission to arrest or beat anyone who is causing trouble, and hopefully that will rid the link between football and hooliganism.

There could be many solutions, one of them being pepper spray but this is very dangerous in the wrong hands so is probably best to steer clear of that.

Something radical and effective must be done and can be done. The fools causing the trouble obviously have no passion for the game and are just out for a fight. Idiots!

My Opinion
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Do anything to stop them! I don?t believe for one minute that hooliganism is the real sport behind football ? I believe it is a minority of football supporters who are immature adults and should never be allowed anywhere near a football stadium.
I know this is impossible though, so heavier policing at all away England matches so that the rest of us true England fans can go and watch the games.

The scenes witnessed during Euro 2000 and also when the violence started when Arsenal played someone in Copenhagen was very distressing for myself, as I have been in situations like that when its nothing to do with me (Marseille ?98 anyone?).

It is very distressing being so close to such violence and the mindless idiots probably can?t even spare half a second to think about the effect it is having on other people like myself.
I haven?t travelled to an away England match away in 3 years now and to be honest I don?t want to unless proper measures ar
e brought in to control the fools.

Conclusion
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Why can?t they control themselves? Why do mindless idiotic fools prevent decent fans from enjoying matches?
I know its only the minority who commit these offences, but I do believe tougher measures at football grounds need to be imposed so that the real fans can watch the beautiful game in peace.

I hope none of you ever have to come in contact, or been in contact with football yobs because it is truly terrifying.

Hope the violence stops, hope the football continues!

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