Is violence creeping back into Football?

Rocker · April 2018

Case for the prosecution:

The attack of the Manchester City bus.

The serious injury to a football supporter minutes before kickoff at the Liverpool -v- Roma match last evening.

Photo on the BBC website of a football "fan" carrying a hammer.

TV footage of football "fans" rioting in Liverpool and swinging their belts.

Who would go to a football match when this kind of behavior goes on? Is violence creeping back into football?

Funkfingers · April 2018

It never went away.

GoldenEraGuitars · April 2018

Violence has never left football. I would never take my children to a football match, for example. However, I’ve taken my family to plenty of ice hockey matches and even since going to hockey games from the age of 4 there was never even a hint of violence or thuggery. It’s actually the main reason I personally don’t get involved with football what so ever.

underdog · April 2018

Rocker said:

Case for the prosecution:

The attack of the Manchester City bus.

The serious injury to a football supporter minutes before kickoff at the Liverpool -v- Roma match last evening.

Photo on the BBC website of a football "fan" carrying a hammer.

TV footage of football "fans" rioting in Liverpool and swinging their belts.

Who would go to a football match when this kind of behavior goes on? Is violence creeping back into football?

I love the fact that a few drunks throwing stuff at a bus is ranked alongside Italian ultras arriving at a game tooled up and putting someone in hospital.

You wait for next week, I dread to think how many Liverpool fans will get beaten and stabbed by Roma fans, and then how many more will be battered by police in the name of crowd control.

I'm not sure why you think it's creeping back in to football when Italian football (especially Roma) have been like this for the past 3 decades or more.

Every English club that has played in Italy in recent memory has had serious problems when out there, the English fans get blamed for it each time too

Fretwired · April 2018

I never thought it went away. It just didn't happen in the ground due to segregation, stewards and policing. Outside there were still punch-ups. Unfortunately social media does drive some of this. There were posts encouraging people to attack the Man City bus and then obvious video of an attack uploaded to social media .. no doubt Man City fans will retaliate at some point .. Roma fans are just mental. Where were the police?

Rocker · April 2018

I don't live in the UK. In Ireland football (Gaelic), hurling, rugby fans mingle in stands and walk out of the stadiums together. Light banter of course but no violence. It just would not be tolerated.

I can't comment on the behavior of fans of Irish football teams. The National teams fans [both the Republic and Northern Ireland) are respected and welcomed wherever they go. A few drinks and a singsong. No hammers. No violence. No flares.

What does that say?

Funkfingers · April 2018

Rocker said:

rugby fans mingle in stands and walk out of the stadiums together.

Generally speaking, Rugby fans do this in the U.K. too. They carry on walking together until they arrive at a bar.

Association Football fans seem to find it necessary to express their petty rivalries in fist and boot formats. The historical precedent for this behaviour is the pre-codification forms of the game itself. Essentially, an annual mass brawl between adjacent towns.

skunkwerx · April 2018

The idea of grown ‘men’ having such empty lives that they somehow feel the need to fight each other for reasons somehow connected to millionaires who kick a bit of leather about for a job and some entertainment puts me right off!

I Once knew a guy who had a brother. Real piece of work. Never employed, in and out of prison all his life, drug addict, violent yet also had a kid.. scary stuff.

Anyway I was at said friends house years back watching Germany thrash England, when this tosspot comes in and tries to sell us some car stereos he’s just nicked. He see’s the score and immediately says ‘ah right thats it, first German I see’s getting his head kicked in’.. and off he went...

I didnt dare say I was of German descent. Was pretty scared by the bloke in general. Crazy out of control. That was the last time I bothered going there.

Then again I also can’t stand seeing these people who are filmed sitting in the stands crying after their team loses... I’m sure it happens in other sports mind you.

Are you fucking serious?

There was riots in France at a recent event, the Euros was it?

Ha, watch what happens in Russia this year.

But for the majority, it is just a game and entertainment and is enjoyed as such, and tarnished or ruined by these thugs.

I’m not a fan of football per se, but I very much enjoy watching the World Cup.

Teetonetal · April 2018

I did wonder if the bus incident and publicity of it led to the Roma incident. It was widely reported in Europe.

Violence in sport has certainly never gone away. It's more that it's rare in grounds now. Even here in law abiding switzerland it's continual problem, both for ice hockey and football.

BRISTOL86 · April 2018

I’ll be honest, the bad rep that football fans get in the media annoys me no end, and in the main, treatment of normal, well behaved football fans by police forces is actually despicable (I've witnessed several disgusting instances of normal people going about their business in a law abiding way being treated with utter contempt and as second class citizens by police).

I’ve been going home and away to football games for 25 years and in all that time I’ve only ever seen one serious violent incident. I think it’s massively overblown, I know loads of people who say ‘I’d never go to a football game’ or ‘I’d never take my child to the football’ which is really sad and depressing. I have fantastic memories of football with my Dad as a kid and it was a hell of a lot more violent back then. I knew nothing of it, because for 99.9999999% of people who don’t actively seek out trouble - they won’t find it - as in any other walk of life really.

I imagine in most places that there’s a crowd of 40/50/60,000 people (concerts, festivals etc) you’ll get an equal or higher number of violent incidents than at football.

In fact (typically I can’t find the article now) there was a recent article which pointed out that the number of arrests per X number of attendees was far higher at places like racecourses and festivals than any football ground - but you’ll never see horse racing fans or music lovers tarred with that brush like football fans.

More recently a Welsh police officer took to Twitter to make it known after a Wales rugby game that as part of a recurring theme, there were more incidents and arrests involving Welsh rugby fans than Welsh football fans.

The recent incident at Liverpool is disgusting (Roma and Italian ‘Ultras’ are renowned for their violence) but 51,000 other people had an incident free night at the football.

57Deluxe · April 2018

/\ funny how only us Engleesh got a ban when all the Russian and Italian lot are more organised and prolific and endemic...??

Fretwired · April 2018

Teetonetal said:

I did wonder if the bus incident and publicity of it led to the Roma incident. It was widely reported in Europe.

Violence in sport has certainly never gone away. It's more that it's rare in grounds now. Even here in law abiding switzerland it's continual problem, both for ice hockey and football.

Apparently Roma have form and are violent everywhere.

Neil · April 2018

Rocker said:

I don't live in the UK. In Ireland football (Gaelic), hurling, rugby fans mingle in stands and walk out of the stadiums together. Light banter of course but no violence. It just would not be tolerated.

I can't comment on the behavior of fans of Irish football teams. The National teams fans [both the Republic and Northern Ireland) are respected and welcomed wherever they go. A few drinks and a singsong. No hammers. No violence. No flares.

What does that say?

That Ireland is a model of tolerance?

EricTheWeary · April 2018

Neil said:

Rocker said:

I don't live in the UK. In Ireland football (Gaelic), hurling, rugby fans mingle in stands and walk out of the stadiums together. Light banter of course but no violence. It just would not be tolerated.

I can't comment on the behavior of fans of Irish football teams. The National teams fans [both the Republic and Northern Ireland) are respected and welcomed wherever they go. A few drinks and a singsong. No hammers. No violence. No flares.

What does that say?

That Ireland is a model of tolerance?

Eire has fascinatingly high statistics for violent crime, although I think a lot of that is accounted for by gang activity in Dublin. You're much more likely to get murdered there than anywhere in the UK ( although I seem to remember Glasgow giving it a close run). If you Google this stuff there's a lot of conflicting information and interpretation but I don't think any of it says Eire has low levels of violent crime.
Perhaps they need a decent football team so they can focus all that anger more in one place.

Snap · April 2018

@ the op's question, the answer is no.

Perspective is needed.

I too have been watching footy for a long time, and haven't seen any bother since the 80s.

The british fans have always been given a bad press, but the antics of other nations seems to get overlooked. For example, Dutch hooligans - animals.

Tribalism will arise whenever you put a group of thickos together from different places unfortunately. the key word is thicko.

randella · April 2018

From someone who doesn't like football, but worked at a big stadium for pocket money for a few years, I really don't see it's a problem. Right enough, you'll not see the fans picking up someone else's litter off the streets on the way home like I saw a few times with Rugby League fans, but the overall atmosphere is good. Even on Derby Day up here in Manchester the pubs are fun. I've been drinking in this town since the mid-90's and never seen any footy-related aggro.

Apart from once, and any other locals who were around at the time will probably remember - that time Rangers pitched up in town in 2008 on a blazing sunny afternoon. I worked in the city centre at the time and a colleague and I went out at lunch to sample the atmosphere, it was already rocking by then. I came out of work at 5pm and saw a Rangers fan pissing into the middle of the pavement surrounded by hundreds of commuters. After that I went home and stayed there. The next morning the whole town smelt of Buckfast and piss, and the place looked like a bomb had hit it.

Now here's my take - it's nob-all to do with football. A load of obnoxious twats left Glasgow for the day and came to my town looking for trouble. Apparently, a big screen momentarily failing was enough justification to start hurling rocks at the police. I've no doubt it happens in reverse too, and if it did it'd still be nob-all to do with football.

Twats are twats. Standard.

Fretwired · April 2018

Snap said:

@ the op's question, the answer is no.
Perspective is needed.
I too have been watching footy for a long time, and haven't seen any bother since the 80s.
The british fans have always been given a bad press, but the antics of other nations seems to get overlooked. For example, Dutch hooligans - animals.
Tribalism will arise whenever you put a group of thickos together from different places unfortunately. the key word is thicko.

How about West Ham v Millwall in 2009? .. pitch invasions, a riot and then serious disorder in the street. It's rare in the ground but it still happens outside.

jonnyburgo · April 2018

These men want to fuck each other but that goes against all their beliefs so they have to fight instead.

thing · April 2018

I don't go into Lincoln centre on match day. It's not that I've seen any actual violence but the air is heavy with the threat of it. Continuous police sirens, gangs of pissed young guys shouting marching five abreast down the pavement etc etc. You would have to have a hide as thick as a rhino not to smell it in the air. Not pleasant.

Chris777 · April 2018

Never been into football myself, "opium for the masses", when at school the other lads were always going on about fights at matches, so never fancied even going, when made it play it in school my technique was to run in the opposite direction the ball was being kicked, it worked well and the teachers never caught on, they possibly thought I was playing tactically lol.

randella · April 2018

thing said:

I don't go into Lincoln centre on match day. It's not that I've seen any actual violence but the air is heavy with the threat of it. Continuous police sirens, gangs of pissed young guys shouting marching five abreast down the pavement etc etc. You would have to have a hide as thick as a rhino not to smell it in the air. Not pleasant.

@thing - I guess Manchester's big enough to absorb it. Matchday or no, I would hazard a guess that marching five abreast down a pavement in town runs you the risk of a slap from some other group of randoms. I suppose it's ameliorated by the sheer size of the populace, and the feel of threat is watered right down. To normal levels for a city of its size anyway

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Is violence creeping back into Football?

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