British soccer hooligans exported fan violence, and this is what that mess looked like
Bad lads, angry chavs, and now the Russians are on board
Poor behavior has more or less been engrained in the game of soccer since day one. In medieval matches, kicking an inflated pig bladder was little more than an excuse for feuding villagers to beat the crap out of each other. And more recently, the game has provided a venue for violent rivalries among hyperlocal fan groups and authorities. Sport has always served as a proxy for score settling, but the relatively recent development of hooliganism in England since the 1950s, and lately in Russia and Eastern Europe, is also a response to deeper tensions rooted in male identity, ritual, and faith.
The practice of “pitch invasions” had become common in British football by the 1880s, as had more malicious incidents of player abuse and postgame brawling between rival spectators, especially in the North. In 1886, fans of Lancashire’s Preston North End battled with Queens Park supporters from Glasgow in a train station — the first recorded instance of hooligan violence outside the stadium and an echo of the Scottish border raids which commonly followed matches in the 17th century.
In 1909, when a large chunk of 60,000 Scottish Cup attendees erupted into riot, the ensuing battle sent scores of players and policemen to the hospital. Attempts to extinguish a large bonfire fueled by pieces of the stadium were reportedly thwarted by knife-wielding rioters cutting fire hoses. A reporter at the scene blithely recounted a “spirit of curiosity and mischief” among the belligerent fans.
As one witness described the scene, “the crossbar of one of the goal posts was carried from the field into Somerville Road in front of the burning pay boxes and a crowd of men and boys hacked at it with pocket knives and pocketed the chips. Among the debris littering the ground was a number of policemen’s helmets, which had been lost in the day’s struggle. These were also the objective of the souvenir-hunter, being cut into strips and carried away.”
Hooliganism as we know it began to cement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in tandem with the postwar emergence of working class subcultures like Mods, Teds, and Skinheads. By the mid 60s, disaffected young men, banded together as “firms,” were using local matches as venues for picking fights with rivals. Named separately from the teams they ostensibly supported, firms had a markedly nationalist bent, often directing their violence at immigrants or just anyone who wasn’t part of the group.
For hooligans, the violence could be a release as well as a stimulant. As Bill Buford recounts in his 1990 book Among the Thugs, “I had not expected the violence to be so pleasurable….This is, if you like, the answer to the hundred-dollar question: why do young males riot every Saturday? They do it for the same reason that another generation drank too much, or smoked dope, or took hallucinogenic drugs, or behaved badly or rebelliously. Violence is their antisocial kick.”
Media, too, contributed to the rise of hooliganism, which by 1964 was occurring at a rate of twenty five instances per season. Television had brought a much larger audience to the game while at the same time widely publicizing the antisocial activities of some supporters. Moral panic set in, which to this day, according to participants, exists in disproportion to the actual threat. Indeed, many observers credit the era’s rise in hooliganism to its increased visibility.
By the 1980s, British supporters were making frequent incursions into Europe to attend games and partake in ritualized violence against rival firms, locals, and any unaffiliated citizens unfortunate enough to cross their paths after a game. The 1998 World Cup match in Marseilles would see bloodshed in battles between English supporters, Tunisian locals, and police.
At the same time, hooliganism has spread to many of the countries where soccer is most popular, notably Bulgaria, Germany, and Poland. Recently, diehard Russian supporters known as “ultras” have even managed to strike fear into the British hooligan establishment. In 2016, there was a concerted effort to target English nationals at the UEFA European Championship, and this Summer’s World Cup threatens to be even worse as its Russian hosts have already begun taunting their British peers in a bizarre test of hooligan heritage. A recent article in the Telegraph quotes a masked Russian hooligan who warned British visitors, “Our opponents are naturally the English because they are the forefathers of hooliganism and, naturally, they are always awaited. For some it will be a festival of football, for others it will be a festival of violence.”
“You see, what is does is this: it gives violence a purpose. It makes us somebody. Because we’re not doing it for ourselves. We’re doing it for something greater-for us. The violence is for the lads”
— Mark, Manchester United supporter, Among the Thugs
“We look forward to Saturdays, all week long. It’s the most meaningful thing in our lives. It’s a religion, really. That’s how important it is to us. Saturday is our day of worship”
—Richard, Among the Thugs
“The violence, we’ve all got it in us. It just needs a cause. It needs an acceptable way of coming out. And it doesn’t matter what it is.”
—Manchester United supporter, Among the Thugs
“Everyone-including the police-is powerless against a large number of people who have decided not to obey any rules. Or put another way: with numbers there are no laws.”
— Bill Buford, Among the Thugs
