Sports Tourism, Football hooligans

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Football Hooliganism

Introduction

Sports tourism is a multi billion pound industry and helps financial systems in many countries:

“Tourism accounts for a significant part of national economy in many countries around the world, by contributing significantly to the GDP (Source: Tourism statistics journal)

The industry could potentially become on of the fastest growing areas in the travel and tourism industry due to the fact that it’s not very well established just yet, but has great potential to expand.

“By 2011, travel and tourism is expected to by more than 10 percent of the global gross domestic product.” (Source Sport business)

Tourism and football is not commonly linked, however it’s becoming increasingly related due to the nature of the sport and its ever growing links to the tourism. This is because football hooligans are people who are travelling to participate in violence after football matches as such in May 1985 Liverpool VS Juventus, Italian fans held a 30 foot banner with the words:

“Red animals” (Source Reid. G)

scribbled across it, thus showing that Italian fans knew they were travelling to Liverpool for a fight, and even made a banner to trying to provoke Liverpool fans to participate in football hooliganism.

The financial system of cities and in some cases even countries around the world are increasingly dependent on visiting or travelling football supporters, in some countries sport can account for as much as 25% of all tourism capital. Football attracts tourists to certain football stadiums around the country; however this has led to many cases of football hooliganism in and around the stadium.

“Violence and hooliganism have been part of our game for decades”

(Source: Pannent. C.)

There has been many football hooliganism related movies and books, such as Green street, Football factory which are both movies, and the Cass Pannent book. This just shows what extent that hooliganism is coming to, showing that people, are making money of the situation, as well as trying to give people an insight of the shape that football hooliganism is taking. This essay will outline the history of football hooliganism and what people are trying to do to stop it from happening, as well as critically analysing football hooligans.

What is football hooliganism?

“Football hooliganism is a form of spectator – generated violence which has claimed lives in England and causes serious property damage in England” (Source Chorbajian. L.)

History of Sports tourism

The past has lacked integration in education and policy, however these days masses of research has been conducted and sport and tourism is becoming more recognised globally. Sports and tourism are to totally different fields and are not academically linked until 1966 when the first academic paper was published; this was published around the same time the world cup was on. Due to the contrast between the two subjects when it comes to educational departments have contested among departments to make the sports tourism module there own.

Football and violence go way back to the 1300’s. In 1314, Edward II banned football due to a brawl involving rival villages hacking a pig's bladder across the local moor. In the 20th century only the rich could participate in sport, this was because the poorer/working class folk didn’t have enough money to participate in sport, also they could afford to follow type of sport as they didn’t have the money to travel to different parts of the country to participate in events etc. However in the more modern game the “1880’s” (Source Guardian Newspaper 2001) according to the Guardian Newspaper in 2001 was the beginning of football hooliganism. Football hooliganism begun in the UK, the worst era for football hooliganism was 1960’s – 1990’s however in the 70’s – 80’s was the peek of hooliganism. The 70’s – 80’s was the worst period of hooliganism due to the amount of ‘firms’ (gangs) starting/organising riots after a match.

“1985 proved to be one of the most catastrophic years in British history”

(Source: Football War)

Fans would travel from there home town to football matches to take part in violence. This is evident in matches such as the 1985 match between Millwall and Luton. The game was shown live on T.V and was interrupted for nearly half an hour due to the Millwall fans ripping seats up for the stands and throwing them on the pitch. When the game finally was started again; however Millwall supporters left the ground they rampaged through Luton causing thousands of pounds worth of damaged to cars, retail premises and houses. Due to this happening the government reacted by implementing a new legislation of banning the sale of alcohol in football grounds, in implementing the legislation it was trying to reduce fans being influenced by alcohol to fight. Other incidences that accoutred in 1985 was that of Leeds VS Birmingham, where Leeds fans instigated a riot at St. Andrews Park. Trouble begun just after kick off, a handful of Leeds fans begun to vandalise and eventually demolish a refreshment stand. The mood of the match remained tense but under tight control, until the 43rd minute of the game and all hell broke loose. Fans armed with bottles, wood and concrete climbed the 12 foot perimeter fences, on to the pitch where they tried to stop the game and attack the police. Eventually after 40 minutes of calming things down the police managed to resolve things. After the match ended the two sets of the fans fought against each other, mean while the pressure of retreating Leeds fans against a wall disaster happened caused the wall to collapse, in the rubble, a 15 year old boy’s body was fount. 75 people were injured over 50 were arrested.

1995 saw the first journal relating to sports tourism as well as the first BSc sports tourism course started in Luton in the same year. This begun a trend in sports tourism and hundreds of colleges/universities have begun to teach this certain subject. 2003 saw the expansion of tourism books, which shows that there is a growth in industry thus creating a trend. These days tourists have more disposable income and the low costing airlines, train tickets etc tourist are able now more than ever to travel at a fraction of a cost compared to the 18th century.

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What are the government trying to do to stop football hooligans?

“Police forces are determined and committed to stopping all violence related to football”

(Source: CPS)

All different types of people are trying to stop hooliganism, the government being the main people who are trying to stop this phenomenon that is football hooliganism. In 1986 a public order act came in to place which allowed courts to ban fans from grounds, this being backed up by the 1989 football spectators act provided for banning convicted hooligans from travelling and attending international matches. Another way of trying to tackle football hooliganism was the football offences act 1991, this legislation was put in place so that certain offences such as throwing missiles on the football pitches, participating in indecent or racist chanting and going on to the pitch without permitted authority then hooligans can get charged under this act. The football disorder act 2000 eliminated the difference between domestic and international bans, this making it easier to convict hooligans from different countries if they had been caught participating in football hooliganism.

Due to the happenings of the Millwall VS Luton in March 1985 the introduction of a legislation which banned the selling of alcohol in champions league games (Source G.Reid Football war), this was to try and clamp down on alcohol related hooliganism. In past football matches when hooliganism was more unplanned it was clearly evident that many football hooligans were under the influence of alcohol. The effort to ban alcohol from football grounds was to try and control behaviour in pubs in the surrounding areas of football grounds which has had an impact on hooligans fighting in the grounds of the stadiums, in the long run of things alcohol didn’t really appear to have very little to do with organising football violence therefore the ban that is in place does little to stop hooligans.

It used to be possible to apply for a one year passport at the post office, known as the British Visitor's Passport. However this was abolished in January 1996. Tourists have to get a full ten year passport. To me this is a way of trying to stop football hooligans of travelling to foreign countries on a short term passport. Also talks of national I.D cards system being introduced to try and track where people are moving to, this will ensure people are who they say they are, therefore if a football hooligan is trying to get out of the country to attend a match then they won’t be able to attend the match due to the I.D card. Some clubs i.e. Luton took independent action, they banned supporters to a howl of protests from opposite clubs, this was trying to stop rivals from fighting. However this didn’t really work that well due to the fact that hooligans would just arrange to met up and fight. Some grounds i.e. Chelsea put up electric fences to stop pitch invasion, never got used, but threat was there and could potentially stop a lot of hooligans from getting on to the pitch. English clubs got banned from European games for 5 years after the Heysel stadium disaster to try and tackle hooliganism.

“Five-year blanket ban on English clubs in European football”

(Source BBC News)

After trying to implement all these different strategies they do seem to be working a little, due to the small decline of football hooliganism. There have been many disasters such as the Hillsborough disaster, it does seem to have made an impact on the people who organise the stadiums etc because they have made football grounds more safe by adding CCTV cambers and making the stadiums all seated so there is no standing space, thus making it less likely to get crushed in a riot.

Typologies & Sociology of sport

What do hooligans have in common?

“One of the most obvious ways in which sport is seen to be connected with is setting is through its links with class stratification.”

(Source Hill.J)

Connections between public school, middle lass and working class sport have combined to its significance. In relation too football hooligans they the typical hooligan is male in his teens – 20’s normally unemployed or working class. There is a competition on dress sense, they all tend to wear stylish clothing such as Stone Island, Burberry and exclusive sports wear. When wearing the team’s football wear it give hooligans a feeling of loyalty. The film football factory (which is based on John Kings novel football factory,) is a study of England’s football violence and male culture, the film shows that firms tend to wear the same type of clothing i.e. Burberry caps, sports wear etc with most members having tattoos to show they belong in a certain group. This gives the hooligans a sense of belonging to a firm; along side this sense of belonging in a group it gives the hooligans a feeling of aggressive masculinity.

“A muscular male body, especially displaying a tattoo signifies an aspiration to hardness.” (Source Armstrong. G.)

Being in such firms gives members high levels of emotional and optimum arousal. This gives members of the firm’s social goals that they can work towards, which could many things such as taking drugs and drinking pints before a match to try and hype themselves up to enable themselves to fight alongside other.

“Hooligans hostilities as a product of alcohol consumption”

(Source Armstrong. G)

Hooligans clash in many public places for example pubs, buses, metro stations as well as train stations as they are a key area where home fans are guaranteed to fight with away fans as it’s a main type of transporting fans out of the area.

Positive impacts of sports tourism & football hooligans

There are many advantages and disadvantages of sports tourism. The main advantage of sports tourism in a certain area is that sports tourism will bring capital in to the area from visitor s travelling from outside of the town/country. This will help the town as well as other surrounding areas; this is because if the town has a poor infrastructure with bad transport links the local government will have to sort this out so people can actually get to the required place to participate in sports tourism. Its not just the infrastructure that will be improved services in the local community for local residents to use. This could help educate people in keeping fit and undertaking a healthy lifestyle. If a major event is hosted in a country such as the world cup in Africa 2010 it could potentially put Africa on the map in the respect of sports tourism. This would help Africa financially, and could help the country become safer for tourist whilst also improving the infrastructure and development of sports programs. The beneficiaries are mainly due to the affect of sports tourism and the positive aspects they bring into society. Football hooligans do have some positive impacts on areas, one of the main positive impacts are the fans spend money on getting to the football ground, i.e. if Middlesbrough are playing Newcastle one side of the fans are going to have to travel to the others stadium, they could do this by using the train to Newcastle and then getting the bus/metro to the stadium, this would create money for the local area. Also if the fans were hungry they might go to the local pub for a meal before the match to have some thing to eat, this will be creating money for the local economy. Due to football hooligans fighting in stadiums, bosses have introduced seating plans to make sure people have a place to sit and this is trying to secure the football ground a bit more by trying stop riots, also by adding CCTV cambers in and around the football stadiums is trying to help find hooligans and also acts as evidence just in case it needs to go to court.

Negative impacts of sports tourism & football hooligans

Negative aspect of sport tourism is that it does not always create revenue; in fact it can create a huge debt for the host country. A primary example of this can be illustrated through the Montreal Summer Olympics in 1976. The Montreal Olympics is one of the worst managed Olympics in history with an economical shortfall that is expected to be eliminated in 2010. Therefore, the Olympics in certain situation can lead to negative tourism. Also if something bad happens whilst an event is talking place i.e. the Paralympics if someone dies then it could look bad on the country therefore creating a bad image for the host country/town. Noise and traffic pollution is a major negative impact, especially if its an event such as a football match were there is normally music, chanting etc going on. Traffic pollution is just as bad than noise pollution if no worse! Traffic pollution is not good for the environment and could harm people if there is too many cars and traffic jams etc. Due to bad fights relating to football hooliganism this puts tourists off from going to a certain country therefore this could give negative impacts on visitor flows. More police etc will have to be in force to make sure if anything does kick off and if it does then the police are there to try and stop anything that is going to happen. Football hooligans have many more negative impacts than positive impacts, the main negative impact is that the size of some fights that hooligans have lead to other innocent people getting involved, this could be in people getting hurt, i.e. other spectators of the sport who only travel to the match to support there team, and end up getting hurt:

“Bodies were lifted forward and laid out on the pitch - many of them teenagers and children.” (Source BBC News)

This shows that innocent people are getting hurt, they attended the match to support there team, but ended up injured/dead on the football pitch. Other negative impacts include the town could get ruined that football hooligans fight in, hooligans could take there anger out one the town that they are in at the time, in such a case as the 1985 match between Millwall and Luton, where Millwall supporters went on a rampage and damaged cars, houses and retail outlets.

Critically analysing football hooligans

Football hooligans mostly bring trouble to towns and cities as such the case of the Millwall VS Luton 1985, in my eyes I don’t think that football hooligans bring much to any town, I know there is advantages to football hooligans such as they bring money to the local area when buying tickets and using the transport links in the town, however I would rather football hooligans didn’t fight etc and just acted like a normal fan and just went to the game to watch the match then everything would be. I think that the government should have a licensing scheme, they should charge only a select number of chosen football fans £5 for an I.D card to allow them to attend matches, this I.D car should only be issued after a background check has been complete to ensure only people who are known hooligans not to be allowed in to the grounds because they won’t be issued with a I.D card. There was talks of an I.D card being introduce back in the 1980’s when Margaret Thatcher but never got introduced, maybe if these got introduced back 80’s football hooligans might have been a thing of the past by now. However

“Millwall is investing more than £1m in the smartcard system, called Teamcard, which it claimed will enable it to exclude troublemakers from the ground.” (Source Computer weekly)

I think that football grounds should make there seating area smaller, I know that they have put seats in to ensure than only a certain amount of people can fit in, but if they can reduce the sizes of the stadiums even more then maybe this will help tackle hooligans. Tourists have to get a full ten year passport. To me this is a way of trying to stop football hooligans of travelling to foreign countries on a short term passport. I don’t think that hooliganism will never go away in my life time, but hooligans have settled down since the 80’s

“A tough police stance to anti-social and disorderly behaviour over recent years has seen a decrease in football-related violence.” Source (CPS)

I think one day football hooligans will die out and only a few people will join in hooliganism, the rest will move on to something else and cause disruption and destruction in a different way.

Conclusion

It is now commonly known that tourists travel to participate in sport, whether it is to watch a football match take part in a cricket tournament etc, due to people have more disposable income and the low costing airlines, train tickets etc tourist are able now more than ever to travel at a fraction of a cost compared to the 18th century. However this low budget travel has come at a cost, this has enabled hooligans to travel further to participate in sports, hooligans have the chance to go all over the world to create havoc and arrange fights etc. When it comes to major sports events such as holding a world cup it can effect the country that it’s hosted at. It can help the country but improving facilities and services as well as the infrastructure of the country, however it can have major negative impacts on the host country. Negative impacts are things such as it could get the country in too major debt, as well as giving the country a bag image if the event doesn’t go the way it is suppose to be.

In many cases it has been proven that fans are only going to matches to participate in hooliganism, as in the case of the 1985 match between Liverpool and Juventus, Italian fans made a banner with ‘Red animals’ wrote all over it, this just backs up my thoughts that hooligans are pre-mediating violence and disruption to football and the town its held in. There have been many disasters such as the Hillsborough disaster and the Heysel disaster; however it does seem to have made an impact on the people who organise the stadiums. Organisers have made football grounds more safe by adding CCTV cambers and making the stadiums all seated so there is no standing space, thus making it less likely to get crushed in a riot.

Over all I think football hooligans are a bad group of people, they just want to fight and want to cause disruption in towns, I think that if football grounds ban masses of fans from going to the match and put in place an I.D card system, this is stop most hooliganism, I don’t think that hooliganism will ever stop however I do think it will die out and there will only be a few fans that will participate in hooliganism.

Word Count 3,153

References

Websites

CPS. Announces "Lead Football Prosecutors" to Tackle Football Hooliganism, Modified 14/08/2008. www.cps.gov.uk. Used on 23/11/08

Heysel Disaster, Heysel: a tragedy waiting to happen? BBC News Online. Last modified 29/05/2000 at 11.11am (online) www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk

Hillsborough disaster. Football fans crushed at Hillsborough 1989. Last modified 15th April 2002. (online) www.news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday. Used 25/11/08

Millwall issues smartcards to stop football hooligans. Last modified 4th July 2004 www.computerweekly.com. Used 26/11/08

Journals

Volo.S. Tourism statistics. Current issues in tourism. Journal volume 11. Number 4. 2008. Page 38. Used 6th October 2008

Chorbajian. L. (et al). Football on trial: Spectator violence and development in football world. Journal: Contemporary sociology, No 1. (January 1992) Page 111. Used October 17th 2008.

Books

Pennant. C. Top Boys. Meet the man behind the mayhem. Page xiii (introduction page) Published by John Blake publishing Ltd. 2005.

Reid. G. Football war.1985. The horror of Heysel. Page 123. Published by Sigma Leisure. 2000.

Reid. G. Red Animals. Football war. The horror of Heysel. Page 123. Published by Sigma Leisure. 2000.

Hill. J. Sport power and culture. Politics of sport and the changing politics of sport. Page 54. Published in 2005.

Armstrong. G. Muscular Body. Evidence meets theory. Football hooligans. Page 162. Published by Berg Publishers, 2003.

Armstrong. G. Hooligans hostilities. Evidence meets theory. Football hooligans. Page 163. Published by Berg Publishers, 2003.

Newspapers

Ingle.S. When did football hooliganism start? Guardian newspaper. Published December 13th 2001. Can also be fount online at www.guardian.co.uk/football/2001

Other

R. Biddiscombe. Sport Business. The Business of Sport Tourism Report. Report. (Can also be fount at www.sportbusiness.com)

Bibliography

Football Factory – Film

Green Street – Film

Football teams and terms – Book