Football and the big stick
Why don't people learn? I'm not talking about just anyone here but about large organisations and people in influential positions. Specifically I'm talking about the football authorities but I know the question can be applied elsewhere.
In the UK the footballing authorities did not learn about the dangers associated with large stadiums and ground behaviour before a series of tragedies: Hillsborough, Heysel and the Bradford City stadium fire during the 1980s. There have been others: Rangers, Spartak Moscow, River Plate to mention just a few of them, but that cluster of disasters in the 1980s did much to concentrate UK thinking on remedies.
Big stick policing
In many of these situations crowd control measures relied on "big stick" policing and containment measures that viewed the people who watched football as little better than animals, hence the fences that caged-in football crowds throughout the 1970s and early 80s. I was shocked to see that the cage-like fences had been retained in the Lens stadium that hosted the Lille v Manchester United match last night.
Not only that, police at football matches, particularly in mainland Europe continue to treat football supporters as an unruly mob that can only be pacified by shields, batons, riot gear and tear gas. If you treat people like animals they begin to behave that way.
In the UK football clubs (because they had to do so after the Taylor report into the Hillsborough disaster) introduced all-seater grounds. That one remedy did much to reduce the mob-like behaviour that inflicted football in the 1970s. Family enclosures, supporters clubs and improvements in marketing have all helped to lessen football hooliganism immeasurably since the bad old days of the 1970s.
But not until football clubs are confident enough to mix-up home and away supporters will you get the kind of congeniality that exists in cricket and rugby grounds. Does anyone think that rugby supporters do not want their team to win? Of course they do. But they know that the game matters more than any team.
I have been going to rugby matches for years and the behaviour between rival supporters is always a matter of banter and nothing more. It's not unusual for a group of supporters to "adopt" a couple of rival supporters in the pub or on the way to the match. OK, the Welsh can get a bit uppity but they're sentimental people and their game means a lot to them. The English are still getting used to having a good rugby team (or they were).
The same applies to cricket. The banter between England and Australian fans can be incredibly cruel but it's almost always good natured and if it ever risks boiling over there are enough sensible supporters to police themselves.
Don't blame drink
Some have blamed drink for crowd violence. It's nothing to do with drink. The Guinness will be flowing this weekend in Dublin before the Croke Park match - and I will be having some myself - but there won't be any trouble. It's just as well because I have been in the thick of some real crowd squeezes at the old Lansdowne road. No one pushed. No one panicked.
Football hooliganism became a way of life for some young people in the 1960s and 70s. They grew up on the mean streets and took out their frustrations at weekends. Most of the people who watched rugby, on the other hand, played the game where the violence was confined to the pitch. Both codes have cleaned up their acts on and off the pitches. So it was a great shame to see police responding so inappropriately towards distressed fans when a crush happened at Lens. To fire tear gas at people struggling for space was inexcusable.
It was a shame, too, to hear the televised match commentator assuming that there was crowd trouble created by unruly supporters. If you assume the worst in people, expect them to repay you in kind. Any sports crowd should be a mixture of team colours. Segregating people, whether in sport or anywhere else, is a recipe for factionalism.
End segregation
Unfortunately this still goes in football. I have a good friend who supports Newcastle who took a friend from Manchester to St James's Park a little while ago for a Newcastle v Manchester United match. They were standing near the front of the Newcastle end when Manchester scored. The Manchester supporter cheered but it did not go down well. He might in fact have been tolerated by the crowd but the stewards were taking no risks and frog-marched him out of the ground. This a middle-aged chap in a respectable profession. This is one aspect of football that the clubs still need to tackle. But it has to be on a European scale.
There shouldn't be a ground left in Europe that still contains football supporters within fences. Opposing fans should be encouraged to mingle, not discouraged from sitting together. The days of police escorts for visiting fans should end. The people best placed to make these changes are not the authorities but older supporters who should set standards for the youngsters. Insults and obnoxious or aggressive behaviour should be stamped on through peer pressure. If clubs pass on this message the core support will understand.
In the UK the footballing authorities did not learn about the dangers associated with large stadiums and ground behaviour before a series of tragedies: Hillsborough, Heysel and the Bradford City stadium fire during the 1980s. There have been others: Rangers, Spartak Moscow, River Plate to mention just a few of them, but that cluster of disasters in the 1980s did much to concentrate UK thinking on remedies.
Big stick policing
In many of these situations crowd control measures relied on "big stick" policing and containment measures that viewed the people who watched football as little better than animals, hence the fences that caged-in football crowds throughout the 1970s and early 80s. I was shocked to see that the cage-like fences had been retained in the Lens stadium that hosted the Lille v Manchester United match last night.
Not only that, police at football matches, particularly in mainland Europe continue to treat football supporters as an unruly mob that can only be pacified by shields, batons, riot gear and tear gas. If you treat people like animals they begin to behave that way.
In the UK football clubs (because they had to do so after the Taylor report into the Hillsborough disaster) introduced all-seater grounds. That one remedy did much to reduce the mob-like behaviour that inflicted football in the 1970s. Family enclosures, supporters clubs and improvements in marketing have all helped to lessen football hooliganism immeasurably since the bad old days of the 1970s.
But not until football clubs are confident enough to mix-up home and away supporters will you get the kind of congeniality that exists in cricket and rugby grounds. Does anyone think that rugby supporters do not want their team to win? Of course they do. But they know that the game matters more than any team.
I have been going to rugby matches for years and the behaviour between rival supporters is always a matter of banter and nothing more. It's not unusual for a group of supporters to "adopt" a couple of rival supporters in the pub or on the way to the match. OK, the Welsh can get a bit uppity but they're sentimental people and their game means a lot to them. The English are still getting used to having a good rugby team (or they were).
The same applies to cricket. The banter between England and Australian fans can be incredibly cruel but it's almost always good natured and if it ever risks boiling over there are enough sensible supporters to police themselves.
Don't blame drink
Some have blamed drink for crowd violence. It's nothing to do with drink. The Guinness will be flowing this weekend in Dublin before the Croke Park match - and I will be having some myself - but there won't be any trouble. It's just as well because I have been in the thick of some real crowd squeezes at the old Lansdowne road. No one pushed. No one panicked.
Football hooliganism became a way of life for some young people in the 1960s and 70s. They grew up on the mean streets and took out their frustrations at weekends. Most of the people who watched rugby, on the other hand, played the game where the violence was confined to the pitch. Both codes have cleaned up their acts on and off the pitches. So it was a great shame to see police responding so inappropriately towards distressed fans when a crush happened at Lens. To fire tear gas at people struggling for space was inexcusable.
It was a shame, too, to hear the televised match commentator assuming that there was crowd trouble created by unruly supporters. If you assume the worst in people, expect them to repay you in kind. Any sports crowd should be a mixture of team colours. Segregating people, whether in sport or anywhere else, is a recipe for factionalism.
End segregation
Unfortunately this still goes in football. I have a good friend who supports Newcastle who took a friend from Manchester to St James's Park a little while ago for a Newcastle v Manchester United match. They were standing near the front of the Newcastle end when Manchester scored. The Manchester supporter cheered but it did not go down well. He might in fact have been tolerated by the crowd but the stewards were taking no risks and frog-marched him out of the ground. This a middle-aged chap in a respectable profession. This is one aspect of football that the clubs still need to tackle. But it has to be on a European scale.
There shouldn't be a ground left in Europe that still contains football supporters within fences. Opposing fans should be encouraged to mingle, not discouraged from sitting together. The days of police escorts for visiting fans should end. The people best placed to make these changes are not the authorities but older supporters who should set standards for the youngsters. Insults and obnoxious or aggressive behaviour should be stamped on through peer pressure. If clubs pass on this message the core support will understand.
Labels: Bradford City, cricket, Croke Park, football hooliganism, Heysel, Hillsborough, Lansdowne Road, Lens, Lille, Manchester United, Newcastle, River Plate, rugby union, Spartak Moscow, Taylor report
posted by Richard Donkin at
3:21 PM
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