Thought some of you might find this interesting...
United Kingdom
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the UK had a reputation worldwide for football hooliganism; the phenomenon was often dubbed the English Disease. However, the UK government has led a widescale crackdown on football related violence. While football hooliganism has been a growing concern in some other European countries in recent years, British football fans now tend to have a better reputation abroad. Although reports of British football hooliganism still surface, the instances now tend to occur at pre-arranged locations rather than at the matches themselves.
[edit] England
Football hooliganism in England dates back to the 1880s, when what were termed as roughs caused trouble at football matches.[5] Local derby matches would usually have the worst trouble, but in an era when travelling fans were not common, roughs would sometimes attack the referees and the away team's players.[70] In the early 1980s, many British hooligans started wearing expensive European designer clothing, to avoid attracting the attention of authorities. This led to the development of the casual subculture. Clothing lines popular with British casuals have included: Pringle, Fred Perry, Le Coq Sportif, Aquascutum, Burberry, Lacoste, Timberland, Lonsdale, Sergio Tacchini, Ben Sherman, Ralph Lauren, Fjallraven, Barbour, Section 60, Paul and Shark, C.P. Company and Stone Island.
During the 1970s, organised hooligan firms started to emerge with clubs such as Arsenal (Gooners, The Herd) Birmingham City (Zulus), Derby County (Derby Lunatic Fringe) Barnet (Northern Line Service), Chelsea (Headhunters), Everton FC (County Road Cutters) (Barnet B.U.G), Leeds United (Leeds Service Crew), Middlesbrough FC(Middlesbrough Frontline), Queens Park Rangers (C Mob, Ellerslie Enders), Burnley FC (The Suicide Squad), Liverpool FC (The Urchins), Manchester City (Guvnors, Young Guvnors, Mayne Line Service Crew), Manchester United (Red Army), Portsmouth (6.57 Crew), Sheffield United (Blades Business Crew), Tottenham Hotspur (Yid Army), and West Ham United (Inter City Firm). Lower league clubs also had firms, such as Blackpool's Rammy Arms Crew, |Stevenage fc SFC Youth, and of course Millwall (Bushwackers), Sunderland AFC (The Vauxies, Seaburn Casuals, Stoke City (Naughty Forty), and Ipswich Town (Ipswich Punishment Squad). Two main events in 1973 led to introduction of crowd segregation and fencing at football grounds in England.[71] Manchester United were relegated to the Second Division, the Red Army caused mayhem at grounds up and down the country, and a Bolton Wanderers fan stabbed a young Blackpool fan to death behind the Kop at Bloomfield Road during a Second Division match.[72]
The so-called relegation battle of White Hart Lane, when Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea fans fought on the pitch after Spurs relegated Chelsea in 1975, made national news when shown on the BBC television programme John Craven's Newsround.
In March 1978, a full-scale riot broke out at The Den during an FA Cup quarter-final between Millwall and Ipswich. Fighting began on the terraces, then spilled out on to the pitch and into the narrow streets around the ground. Bottles, knives, iron bars, fists, boots and concrete slabs rained from the sky. Dozens of innocent people were injured. In March 1985, hooligans who had attached themselves to Millwall were involved in large-scale rioting at Luton when Millwall played Luton Town in the quarter final of the FA Cup. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's immediate response was to set up a "War Cabinet" to combat football hooliganism.[73] On 29 May 1985, 39 Juventus fans were crushed to death during the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels; an event that became known as the Heysel Stadium disaster. Just before kick-off, Liverpool fans broke through a line of police officers and ran toward the Juventus supporters in a section of the ground containing both English and Italian fans. When a fence separating them from the Juventus fans was broken through, the English supporters attacked the Italian fans, the majority of whom were families rather than ultras who were situated in the other end of the ground. Many Italians tried to escape the fighting, and a wall collapsed on them.[74][75] As a result of the Heysel Stadium disaster, English clubs were banned from all European competitions until 1990, with Liverpool banned for an additional year.[76]
On 11 May 1985 a 14-year-old boy died at St Andrews stadium when fans were pushed onto a wall by Police which subsequently collapsed following crowd violence at a match between Birmingham City and Leeds United.[77][78] The fighting that day was described by Justice Popplewell, during the Popplewell Committee investigation into football in 1985 as more like "the Battle of Agincourt than a football match".[73][79][80] Because of the other events in 1986 and the growing rise in football hooliganism during the early 1980s, an interim report from the committee stated that "football may not be able to continue in its present form much longer" unless hooliganism was reduced, perhaps by excluding "away" fans.[73]
Margaret Thatcher, UK Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, made a high-profile public call for the country's football hooligans to be given "stiff" prison sentences to act as a deterrent to others in a bid to clamp down on hooliganism. Her minister for sport, Colin Moynihan, attempted to bring in an ID card scheme for football supporters.
Millwall hooligans were involved in their third high profile incident in decade on January 1988, when in an FA Cup tie against Arsenal at Highbury, 41 people were arrested for rioting.
The government acted after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 fans died, bringing in the Football Spectators Act 1989 in the wake of the Taylor Report.[74][75] However, the Hillsborough Justice Campaign states: "the British Judicial system has consistently found that violence or hooliganism played no part whatsoever in the disaster".[76] On 15 February 1995, England played Ireland. English fans started to throw items down into the stand below and rip up seats; after battles broke out between police and English fans, 50 people were injured.
English and German fans have a rivalry dating back to the late 1980s.[81][82][83][84][85][86] After England's defeat to Germany in the Euro 96 semi-finals, a large scale riot took place in Trafalgar square, with a number of injuries. A Russian youth was also stabbed in Brighton, because his attackers mistook him as being German.[87] Other occasional clashes have occurred with a few other teams since the mid 1980s.[88] France 98 was marred by violence as English fans clashed with the North African locals of Marseille, which led to up to 100 fans being arrested.[89]
In the 2000s, English football hooligans often wear either clothing styles that are stereotypically associated with the "[casual]" subculture, such as items made by Shark and Burberry. Prada and Burberry withdrew certain garments over fears that their brands were becoming linked with hooliganism.[90] English hooligans have begun using Internet forums, mobile phones and text messages to set up fight meetings or provoke rival gangs into brawls.[91] Sometimes fight participants post live commentaries on the Internet.[92]
Football violence in British stadiums declined after the introduction of the Football Spectators Act, and in the 2000s much of the trouble occurred away from stadiums or away at major international tournaments.[70] At Euro 2000, the England team was threatened with expulsion from the tournament, due to the poor behaviour of the fans.[93] Following good behaviour in the Korea-Japan 2002 and Portugal 2004, the English reputation has improved.[94] At the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, there were limited incidences of violence, with over 200 preventative arrests in Stuttgart (with only three people being charged with criminal offences) 400 others taken into preventative custody.[95][96] During that day, Police believe that on average each rioter consumed or threw 17 litres of beer.[96]
ok having to do this over 2 posts as too big for just one...soz..
Bags.
