A Study of Football Hooliganism: Are Football Hooligans "Real" Fans?

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 Abdullah Mamaniat 10Q                                                                         

A Study of Football Hooliganism: Are Football Hooligans “Real” Fans?

Introduction

        This study looks in depth at football hooliganism and the media coverage of it. However, to know more about the issue, firstly I briefly aim to look at the profile of the football hooligan and answer the vital question: ‘Who are they and why do they do it?’ Furthermore I briefly intend to analyse the role media plays in football hooliganism. I also intend to look at the sociological concepts and approaches to football and its fans, and sociological theories and concepts to an analysis of the relationships between football and nationality, gender and race. One of my objectives is also to look explore sociological accounts of the role of football in a globalised world.    

        However, most importantly, the aim of this project is to find out weather football hooligans are “real” fans or if they are deviants using the football culture as an excuse. Looking at the profile of the hooligan will help me to find this and another way I will find this out is by looking at the way the media portrays all fans as hooligans.

        My reason for studying this topic varies. My main reason was the fact that football hooliganism has been something of an interest to me for some time. It is a topic that greatly interests me and as the subject of football hooliganism tends to come up in the news regularly I have always felt that I want to expand my knowledge regarding the issue. Furthermore it should be interesting to get a clearer view on an aspect that influences many of our lives. Lastly studying this topic will enable me to look at different views and therefore I may benefit in more understanding of the views and contrast in views.

Methodology

        

        For my Sociology Coursework research I have chosen a few methods to gather my research. As there are many methods I could use, I have discussed each of them, looking at the advantages and disadvantages, and eliminated those methods, which I felt were no use to me.

        One way of collecting data is to use a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a set of questions on a given topic. There are two ways that the questions can be used.

  • An interviewer asks questions and fills in a form:

Advantages: The interviewer can make sure that the questions are correctly understood.

Disadvantages: The interviewer must ask the question in such a way, which does not influence the person answering the question. This method is expensive and time-consuming.

  • People are given a form to fill in themselves.

Advantages: The person filling the questionnaire has time to answer the questions.

Disadvantages: Some of the form may not be returned. Further, there is no one to ask for advice if a question is not clear.

As part of my primary data I have decided to use the first option to collect data. I will interview five different people in order to find out if they consider football hooligans as real fans. In addition to that I also intend to send an email to Metropolitan Police and a letter to West Yorkshire Police asking if they could send me any statistics or information that would help me in my research. I am hoping they send me statistics, i.e. graphs and tables which will tell me the age, social class etc. of the “football hooligan.”

        As part of my secondary data I have decided to use the Internet, textbooks, teaching materials, newspapers and encyclopaedias for my information. Although I will also use the Internet when I am emailing Metropolitan Police, I am also going to search for newspaper archives which will enable me to look at specific episodes or incidents where I can see how they are reported. Lastly I will use the textbooks and other resources to look at the way deviance is amplified and they will also help me for quotes from leading sociologists.

Content and Analysis      

       

        Professional football is by far and away the most popular spectator sport in Britain. Going to football matches is mainly male predominantly male activity, but around 12% of attendees of top matches in England are female (Williams, 1996). In 1995/96 there were almost 21 million attendances at Premier League and Football League matches. However, since the Second World War, until about the late 1980s attendances at football matches in Britain have began to decline. There are many reasons for this, however many people point to football hooliganism in order to explain football’s relative decline in the number of spectators. Hooliganism was not popularly identified as a serious problem in this country, until the 1960s, a long time after football’s declining popularity after the war. But there seems little doubt that the fear of hooliganism did deter at least some fans from attending football matches between the mid 1960s and the early 1990s.

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The Role of the Media

        

Between the wars, football generally became more ‘respectable’ and crowd problems diminished but did not disappear. However, it was not until the 1960s that the media coverage of football began once more regularly to report hooliganism at matches. Journalists around this time were actually sent to report on crowd behaviour rather than just the game.

Around this time, too, there was a general ‘moral panic’ (Cohen, 1973) about the behaviour of young people sparked by juvenile crime rates. It was during this time that football became increasingly identified as a venue at which ...

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