[Clips] How Britain Beat Hooliganism

[R.A. Hettinga]

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  Delivered-To: rah at shipwright.com
  Delivered-To: clips at philodox.com
  Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 09:24:11 -0400
  To: Philodox Clips List <clips at philodox.com>
  From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] How Britain Beat Hooliganism
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  <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB115049661838582842.html>

  The Wall Street Journal


  How Britain Beat Hooliganism

  By CHUCK CULPEPPER

  June 17, 2006; Page P3

  A NUMBER OF countries have grappled with soccer-related violence, but one
  has significantly reduced hooliganism with some unusual steps that would
  startle most American sports fans.

  The country is England, and measures range from deciding who can buy
  tickets to telling fans where they can sit. For matches with entrenched
  animosity between the teams, some clubs will sell only to people with a
  ticket-buying history, meaning a tourist or casual fan can't simply buy an
  available seat. To minimize taunting, fans of visiting teams must enter
  stadiums through separate doors marked "visitors," and then must sit
  together.


  Beyond that, tickets often bear the name of the purchaser, so in case of a
  problem, police may track down the responsible parties and soccer clubs may
  suspend privileges. Closed-circuit cameras blanket stadiums and help
  prosecutors in soccer-violence cases.

  With soccer venues purged of the rowdy standing room-only terraces of the
  1980s, and fans have become "much less anonymous in the stadium," says John
  Williams of the University of Leicester's Sir Norman Chester Centre for
  Football Research. "Now we have a very controlled spectator space." Beer
  drinking, too, is tightly regulated, and is limited to concession areas.

  Domestic soccer-related arrests plummeted to about 2,725 in the 2004-05
  season from some 8,000 a year in the 1980s. More recently, English
  authorities have tackled problems with their fans at overseas soccer
  matches. In the run-up to the World Cup, British authorities required some
  3,300 known hooligans to turn in their passports to local police,
  preventing them from traveling to Germany. More than 90% complied, and
  airport agents have ensnared a smattering of others who tried to leave the
  country.


  Additionally, Britain sent 40 police officers to Germany to help prevent
  outbreaks, and four prosecutors to gather evidence for any potential court
  cases.

  It's a big change from the '80s, when most big-city matches in England had
  some hooligan incident or element. The crisis peaked in May 1985, when 39
  Italian and Belgian fans died in Belgium when a wall collapsed after
  Liverpool fans charged toward the fans of an Italian team, Juventus. That
  led the European soccer federation to ban Britain's soccer teams from
  competition for five years.

  While no one in the British police or government considers the hooliganism
  problem solved, hooligans have been pushed away from the stadiums. Some 59%
  of the arrests in the 2004-05 season took place away from stadium grounds,
  and a police spokesman said the measures have forced some hooligans to use
  the Internet or cellphones to arrange fights. On the World Cup's first
  weekend, about 20 hooligans started a fight that left 16 people injured,
  but it took place at a big-screen viewing of the England-Paraguay match in
  East London.

  Bigger incidents occurred in other European countries this past season,
  particularly Poland, where a riot after a league championship in Warsaw
  last month led to the arrest of 231 people and the hospitalization of 50
  police officers. In March, a 21-year-old fan was stabbed to death in
  Krakow. At the World Cup earlier this week, ahead of the Germany-Poland
  match, police arrested 40 Polish fans and found knives on four of them.

  In Britain, annual fan surveys by Leicester University show that
  hooliganism now "figures very little into their perception of football,"
  Mr. Williams says. While fan bases remain predominately young and male,
  research shows steady increases in both elderly and women attendees.
  Perhaps the most telling statistic: About 30% of all professional soccer
  matches in England don't have any police on scene at all, according to
  government's United Kingdom Football Policing Unit.

  An estimated 60,000 English fans traveled to Nuremberg for the country's
  second World Cup game, against Trinidad and Tobago. Some 28 people were
  arrested, but largely for scalping, public drunkenness and trying to hop
  the stadium fence.

  --
  -----------------
  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'