h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Dogmanstar I wonder if you watched the programme on soccer "supporters" last night(Sunday the 12th May 2002)? I was totally horrified by it. I wonder how you are getting on with your further research into this phenomenon. I seem to remember that the reporter said that it cost the police £50 miilion A Year to polica the matches. It is quite dreadful. Kind regards. Ar1

Yes, I did see it. There was another similar programme on Channel 5 the other week.

There is no denying that football hooliganism is on the rise. This year has seen riots - proper, full scale riots - at Cardiff, Millwall, Newcastle, West Ham and Middlesborough, as well as hundreds and hundreds of 'offs' all over the place. As the Police chap said, the FA and Premiership don't want anything reported in case it hurts the corporate image, and there is simply not sufficient resource to do anything other than contain the violence.

Also, as unpleasent as it may be to face, it is a fact that violence is exiting. It just is. It will therefore always be attractive to certain mentalities. I think that sometimes we get so carried away with how clever we have become that we forget that we are essentially animals, and behave in an essentially animalistic manner, especially in crowds. I wrote about the attraction of violence in another conversational posting for this entry.

With regards to the research (thanks for asking) I am more interested at the moment in exploring the fundamental attraction of mob violence itself, rather than football violence specifically, although the latter is probably the best example of the former. There will, at some point, be a guide entry.