The Battle of Marseille: A Story of Football Hooliganism Now and in Decades Past.

It has been a long-time since Football hooliganism has been talked about widely in the media, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say how massively better things have got since the days of the 70s when Firms such as The Yid Army, Baby Squad and County Road Cutters terrorised members of the public and other firms attending football matches across the country. However, 30-plus years since the UK Government issued a huge crackdown on violence at Football, it’s right back in our headlines with what started as ‘The Battle of Marseille’ and expanded across all of France during the European Championships.

England were set to play Russia as their opening game of the tournament on the 11th of June, and in the days before the match, England fans had poured into France (and more specifically Marseille) en masse, and as Brits are wont to do when abroad, had been seen to maybe drink a little bit too much and sleep a little too less. Small skirmishes with the French riot police ensued, but this was all overshadowed by reports of masked Russian ‘supporters’ assaulting Brits with baseball bats, and even a stabbing was reported.

If this wasn’t bad enough, accusations came through that these Russian hooligans had been in some way funded or organised by the Russian government and although these reports have not yet been confirmed nor denied, things once again came to a head as Russia headed home a last-minute equaliser against England at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille.

A flare was set off and echoed around the stadium and it was at this point that Russian fans piled into a neutral area of the stadium and began attacking what turned out to be mostly England supporters. The shocking footage was broadcast live on TV and was universally condemned, leading to an ultimatum by UEFA; any more trouble inside stadiums and Russia would be excluded from the rest of the tournament.

I spoke to a fan who was in Marseille during the trouble and in the stadium for the game.

Part of the reason this is seen to be so shocking is hooliganism in Britain has been hugely on the decrease for the last few decades. It is not very common anymore to hear about a huge brawl after a football match in the media, whereas back in the 70s and early 80s, it was incredibly commonplace. One of the most important reasons this has occurred is the introduction of the Banning Order.

Introduced by The Football Spectators Act 1989, Banning Orders are designed as a kind of prophylaxis for hooliganism by stopping individuals believed to have caused trouble in the past from attending games and potentially even city-centres on match-days. Based on a variety of factors, these orders can last anywhere from 3 to 10 years.

As you can see from the above graphs, introduction of The Football Spectators Act 1989 has managed to decrease arrests at football matches, even though match attendance has steadily risen. The importance of this banning order is largely responsible for why there were only 1,494 arrests at football matches in 2014/15 (the latest year data is available).

Without this banning order, it is likely we would have continued to see the rise evident in the data graphed from 1986/87 to 1988/89 continue unabated and football today would continue to be rife with scenes such as that we all saw and condemned at this year’s European Championship.