Dr Geoff Pearson is a Lecturer at the Football Industry Group in the University of Liverpool’s Management School
“Last weekend saw a series of incidents of disorder and violence at domestic English matches.
“Fighting amongst Millwall fans during the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley was picked up by ESPN coverage of the match, and the following day there was widespread media reporting of Newcastle fans clashing with police following their defeat in the Tyne-Wear derby, including, incongruously, footage of a replica shirt-wearing fan punching a police horse.
Worst weekend of football violence
“The weekend also saw less reported disorder involving Bradford City fans at Chesterfield and clashes between Rochdale and Port Vale fans resulting in a charge of attempted murder. In totality, it was probably the worst weekend of football violence for several seasons and inevitably this led to the media asking the now annual question: “Are we returning to the dark days of football hooliganism?”
“The short answer is “No.” There is nothing to suggest that there is any trend in terms of increasing levels of football crowd disorder in the UK. Levels of football violence have been largely static for the past ten or fifteen years, and disorder in and around stadia remains far less of a problem than in the 1970s and 80s.
“Indeed, based on arrest and banning order statistics (which, it should be said, are typically inaccurate indicators of levels of disorder) it is possible that we are in the middle of a further decline in the problem.
“Generally, however, it should be noted that trends of incidents of disorder are regional rather than national – levels of ‘hooliganism’ are inevitably fluctuating at different clubs in response to changing fan demographics, local policing styles and other factors (such as club success or stadium reconfiguration).
“Another two issues stand out from the weekend’s disorder.
“The first is that the Millwall violence was intra-club. Rather than being a clash between rival club supporters, it escalated from a dispute between groups of fans supporting the same team. My own research suggested that intra-club violence was a significant and underreported problem.
“As a fan (in England at least) it seems that you are far more likely to be assaulted by a fan of the same team than one supporting the opposition. These type of disputes can escalate under the radar of police who are likely to be more concerned with the risk of violence between supporters of rival teams.
“The second issue was once again the importance of the police in whether disorder occurred and escalated.
“At Wembley it appeared that police intervention was too late to prevent violence, and that when it was made it was accompanied by the use of batons, which further escalated disorder and ironically may have helped to bring the warring factions together to fight against a common enemy.
“The disorder in Newcastle also saw the police being attacked, again as a response to an intervention (or a historical series of interventions) that may have been perceived by some of those fans as being illegitimate and provocative. This in turn meant that some fans would have felt that disorderly conduct was a justifiable response to the infringement of what they considered to be their legitimate objectives and rights.
Managing large crowds
“We are not returning to the “dark days of hooliganism”, but the recent incidents again demonstrate the challenges posed in managing large crowds of football fans, particularly as we enter the ‘business end’ of the season.
“They provide further evidence that police interventions (or inappropriate lack of intervention) can result in the escalation of disorder. However it needs to be remembered that the vast majority of matches at the weekend, including several high risk ones, passed off peacefully, demonstrating the massive progress that has been made in the policing of football supporters since the 1980s.”
Dr Geoff Pearson is author of ‘An Ethnography of English Football Fans: Cans, Cops and Carnivals’ (2012 Manchester University Press).
