Statistics, from a recently carried out survey that categorised thirteen of Europe’s major footballing countries into five groups, show that Britain has the highest rate of violence, racism, and hooliganism and was the only country in group one. Followed by Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium in group two. Austria, Sweden and Denmark were rated close behind and were placed into group three. Group four consisted of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. These countries have small amounts of violence but most of which has been contained. The countries with the least amount of violence were Greece, the Czech Republic, Albania and Turkey. They were put in group five.
From this information it is very clear that England has major issues with violence at football matches. Seeing as the problem first started in Britain and spread around the world, it is no wonder that violence in football matches is called the ‘British Disease’. I always thought that we had enough naturally caused diseases. I seem to be mistaken seeing as we have produced this one out of man made causes.
It is evident that violence in football is increasing rapidly. Statistics speak for themselves. In the first three months of the 2001 football season over fourteen major violent attacks occurred, mainly in the UK but also in other European countries as well as in Africa. Examples of the worst cases are fans being jailed for match violence, thirty-four Britons being detained after violence in a world cup match. However I feel that policemen being shot is by far the worst. Most of the evidence on hooligan offenders suggests that they are generally between the ages of 17-27, that they are in manual and lower occupations or, to a lesser extent, unemployed, and that they come from working class backgrounds. Nevertheless I don’t consider the background of offenders relevant but only what is going to be done about football hooliganism.
I am sure that most of you know that the risk of going to a football much has greatly risen over the last decade, which is why many schemes and programs have been developed to assure safety at matches. How would you feel if you were at a football match and you witnessed a fight, a fire or even a shooting? Can you honestly say that this would not put you off football? I can’t. Britain are yet to find a satisfactory method of keeping violence from football matches, however countries like Germany and Belgium have made fan coaching schemes which involve football fans getting help from social workers. This has been successful so far. Most European countries have raised tickets prices and have hired a very large number of police officers to control situations. When thinking logically is the really anything that can be done to stop violence in football matches? Maybe it could be slightly reduced but to end it completely is just as likely as me scoring the winning goal for England in the World Cup final. Miracles do happen but until then I’ll just keep in dreaming!
A recent example of football hooliganism was in Cardiff. It was an FA Cup match between Premiership side Leeds and lower division side Cardiff. Leeds were favourites to win despite being away from home. However Cardiff pulled off a spectacular 2-1 victory in the closing minutes. This sparked one of the biggest violent scenes in British football. All through the match stones and coins were thrown at the Leeds players, by the Cardiff fans and at one point the referee needed treatment after being hit on the head by a flying object. At the final whistle thousands of home supporters stormed onto the pitch and police were forced to make four arrests. Many of Leeds players were hit as they left the stadium. An investigation is still taking place to find out how such a chaotic scene took place. Leeds manager David O’Leary stated that he thought the Cardiff owner ‘stirred an already emotional atmosphere’, by walking over to his fans and cheering with them even before the final whistle. Whether Ninian Park will be shut down is a matter for the FA to decide.
The true extent of racism among football supporters is almost impossible to quantify. However it is clearly a very serious problem and it is often blamed for outbreaks of violence, particularly at international matches. In Britain, racist chanting at football matches still occurs and to end this a campaign has been issued to combat racism. It is called ‘Let’s kick racism out of football’ I was recently at a football match and on the television screens I saw an advert for this campaign. It really made me think because not only was it a very clever commercial but it also got people’s attention. I am sure that all of you sitting here today believe that racism is most definitely something that is not needed in football matches but also in the world.
I ask you all that whether it is not going too far when the England national team almost got disqualified from the world cup 2002 because of violent behaviour by the English fans. This is not just a match; this is the biggest sporting event in the world. Would this have been fair on England team? Would it have been fair on the non-violent England fans? In my opinion the only fair justice would be to find a cure for the British disease’ before it becomes deadly and contagious. Think about!