Football hooliganism

Football hooliganism in Britain is believed to have started at the end of the nineteenth century, when people often described as "roughs" caused minor disturbances. By the 1960s, hooliganism had become a more serious problem. This led the government to respond with the 1968 Public Order Act, which, amongst other provisions, allowed the courts to ban offenders from football grounds.

In the 1980s, when fighting at football was commonplace in the United Kingdom. British police would be on the lookout for fans wearing skinhead fashions or cheap work wear. Hardcore hooligans started to wear the expensive clothing as a result of looting designer boutiques during riots in European Competition. This led to the development of the casual subculture.
Since then, classic gentlemen's clothing lines — such as Burberry, Ben Sherman, Polo Ralph Lauren, Aquascutum and Paul & Shark — have been appropriated by hooligans as their uniform.

Now the wearing of such clothing at domestic football matches is more likely to attract, than repel police attention. The height of casual culture was in the mid 80s, when hooligans following Liverpool F.C. through Europe would raid boutiques across the mainland continent to steal the latest fashions.

In 1985, the Heysel Stadium disaster resulted in 39 Juventus supporters being crushed to death when a fence separating them from Liverpool fans collapsed, leading to a violent confrontation. The spotlight was quickly turned on football hooliganism, with English clubs banned from European competitions until 1990 (with Liverpool banned an extra year). It was not until the Hillsborough disaster (in which 96 fans died due to a failure of police to control a large crowd, coupled with poor safety standards) that the Margaret Thatcher government acted, bringing in the Football Spectators Act (1989) in the wake of the Taylor Report. However, as the Hillsborough Justice Campaign notes, "the British Judicial system has consistently found that violence or hooliganism played no part whatsoever in the disaster".

English and German fans have had a longstanding rivalry, and began to riot against each other in the late 1980s. This subsequently brought English and German fans' reputations to an all time low in the late 1990s. Other occasional clashes have also occurred with a few other teams since the mid 1980s. France 98 was marred by violence as English fans clashed with the Muslim North African locals of Marseille, which led to up to 100 fans being arrested.

In the 2000s, football hooligans often wear clothing styles that are stereotypically associated with the chav subculture, such as those from the labels Prada and Burberry. This has encouraged these companies to withdraw certain garments over fears that their brands are becoming linked with hooliganism. English hooligans have become more advanced in the way they plan their fights, often using Internet message boards, mobile phones and text messages. These hooligans often post messages on other hooligan sites to tempt rival gangs into meeting up for fights. Sometimes people at the fights post live commentaries on the Internet.

Football violence in stadiums declined domestically since the introduction of the Football Spectators Act, and in the 2000s much of the trouble has instead occurred away from grounds and at major international tournaments. At Euro 2000, the England team was threatened with expulsion from the tournament, due to the poor behavior of the fans. Following good behavior in Korea-Japan 2002 and Portugal 2004, the English reputation has improved. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, there were limited incidences of violence, with over 200 preventative arrests in Stuttgart (with only three people being charged with criminal offences). However, 400 others were taken into preventative custody. During that day, Police believe that on average each fan consumed17 liters of alcohol.

Despite hooliganism declining domestically, death threats by English hooligans have become more common in the 2000s. Rio Ferdinand was the target of death threats from Leeds United fans, as was Peter Ridsdale. Swedish referee Anders Frisk quit his position after receiving death threats from Chelsea F.C. fans. Reading players Ibrahima Sonko and Stephen Hunt also received death threats from Chelsea fans in 2006.

It has been documented that most English hooligans are in their late teens or early twenties, although it is not uncommon for older hooligans to take part (usually as leaders). They usually come from working class backgrounds, mainly employed in manual or lower clerical occupations, or (to a lesser extent) are working in the grey market or are unemployed.

Football Clubs and their Firms - Below is a list of the major Firms in British Football.