Chop off the arms and legs of every male between the ages of 14 and 40

[simpsonkeith9]

According to one ex-football hooligan, that is the only solution to the hooliganism problem in the UK.
Interesting point of view, since it is still only the minority of fans that are hooligans. In addition, it is only a minority of males that attend football matches, whether inside or outside the stadium.
I guess this guy just has violence in him that can't be removed?

Another guy, or maybe he was the same one, was unhappy at how you can get help for drugs and alcohol, but not football hooliganism. His problem, he said, was that he can't get football violence out of his head.

A lot of people say that things are much better than they used to be (in the 80s). I couldn't testify to that as I'm not an old fart , but is it possible that things will get better from here? Or are we stuck this way forever? Why is it only football that has hooligans?

 

[Rooster2619]

huh?!

 

[RunWithMe]

I also heard those comments made on Panorama tonight. It was a truly shocking documentary. Enough to (almost) put me off football alltogether. Of course, it is only the minority but it's a shame that they spoil it for the majority. As long as there are little kids watching what these so called role models are doing, as there were in the programme tonight, I think there will always be an element of violence associated with football. Conflict is human nature and if it's not other nationalities that hooligans target, it will be rival clubs, or even innocent onlookers.

 

[conlnot]

Violence in sports is not isolate to soccer, check out the Raiders fans.

They have stabbed, shot, beaten etc...opposing fans.

 

[gometz505]

No help for Hooligans?
What about something like Anger Management? In the end isnt that where it stems from?

 

[PearlG]

Interesting thread, Taff.

When I saw the title, I just assumed you were a parent with your oldest daughter approaching adolescence. I understand!

 

[NicolaD]

Yeah but I bet if you looked at a comparative study you'd find that violence on comparable levels to English football hooliganism doesn't really exist in the states (saying that... I'm not sure a comparative study even exists). I sincerely doubt that American football fan violence is even close either in frequency or total numbers and organizations involved.

If you want comparable levels of violence then you have to look to either African, S. American or Italian football fans. All of which have notorious football violence - highly organized and very much part of the social fabric of the societies in which it takes place. Which is very much the way it is in the UK I'd imagine.

I've always thought of football in a sense as proxy war. It's got all the facets it needs at just about every level. So that there is football violence is no real shocker.

 

[BugM]

This is one reason i hardly watch sports like this, i don't like being associated with people who have such barbaric tendencies. I like only watch football when it's the superbowl, and i catch baseball more than anything else and that seems to be the least violent sport, but there are occassional outbursts. But i don't see why people need to get so caught up in simple-minded sports. like soccer, as it's called in the states, what's the point in killing someone over a dispute because they're represntative team maybe didn't kick the bowl inside a net more than the opposing team. Sounds like the lowest form of poor sportsmanship to me. "Your team cheated on that penalty kick "

 

[Capodastaro]

I'd heard of studies that apparently show that spousal abuse increases significantly during the build up to the Super Bowl.

I guess when guy yells at his wife to get him more Bud Lite from the fridge he doesn't like being told to say the magic word in front of his male pals. Thus the KAPOW! right in the wifes kisser.

 

[nydp02]

Watch Football Factory if you want to realise how organised it is, and also realise that the ring leaders of many of these gangs are actually socially respected people like lawyers and doctors. Saddos.

 

[Moroccangirl]

Do you that according to the real football factories there was no english football holigans until us scots trashed wembley after beating engalnd in the 70s then it were a case of "it wont happen twice".

 

[Gracettt]

I saw that program, twas scary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9-HfLFmdQI

I think football violence is a sport in itself for some

 

[RaeRae]

Its not about football for theese types.They just wanna hurt people

 

[shellyshelly20]

Football in England has gone so far down the pan that hooliganism would be a small price to pay for having the game restored to the way it was back in the 70's and 80's.

 

[eskielover]

And with films such as Green Street on the screen, it's only getting a better promotion.

 

[RichardN]

I have seen football factory and don't doubt that it's very organised. The mentality seems similar to school children though.

 

[Skizoid]

I'm a bit confused, are you refering to the quality of play or something else?

 

[Erincait]

To a degree, but I'm talking more about the game from the spectator's point of view.

 

[iheartaaron4life]

If ever I have a child and they like football...I'm never taking them to a match.
The whole mob culture of it all turns my stomach.
The whole primitive tribal-ness of it all.
It horrifies me that there are fathers out there that could name every player in the first and second eleven of their chosen team but couldn't name a single teacher that teaches their child at school.

 

[chanys22]

So this footy hooligan culture was not as prevalent back in the 70's and 80's?