Most people would expect a hooligan to be, strong, male, un-shaven and thug like. But this is not true, in fact sometimes quite the opposite in this case. Hooligans come in all shapes and size, big and small, fat and thin, and sometimes quite unexpectedly are females. These people, often in large groups, go to football matches and terrorize innocent victims or the police; and the reason they give for behaving like this is that it gives them a buzz.
In most cases, these people are members of special hooligan groups such as 'Combat 18' or 'Soul Crew' and travel to important matches such as local derbies and cup finals where they cause riots in cafes and bars with the aid of tables and chairs. If this problem arises, which in most cases it does, the riot police are called on to help resolve the situation before it gets out of hand. Back here in England, many of the attacks are racially based, for example: last year a white was attacked by Asian youths, just days before the football clash between Oldham and Cardiff.
Oldham hooligans contacted members of the Cardiff City 'Soul Crew' which was encouraged by the club's chairman Hamman, by mobile telephone. The two groups then arranged to attack the Asian estate in a act of revenge. These actions resulted in mass riots, some of the worst in English history. These types of groups who attack innocent people because of their culture or race are known as 'Far-Right Associates' and can be extremely violent. Most people have different views on what hooligans are like and why they do the things they do. I personally believe that these few select people act like this for two main reasons and they are as follows.
One, they have nothing better to do and they think that it earns them a big reputation; Two, they say that beating people up, living life on the edge and constantly dodging the law gives them a sensational buzz. One of the strangest aspects of hooliganism is that most of its members are actually rather intelligent and my personal opinion is that they are spoiling there lives and jeopardizing their career opportunities I think that hooligans spoil the fantastic game of football worldwide and give the sport a bad name especially in Britain.
They are considerably lowering the chances of the country hosting a future World Cup or European Championship. It can't possibly create a positive impression when English hooligans cause problems at foreign football fixtures and I think that its reasons like this that contribute to England's bid to host the 2006 World Cup being declined. If something is not done in the near future then I feel that we have no change of hosting any major sporting event and English supporters may be banned from attending future venues in the problems continue in Japan and Korea.
The police are working around the clock attempting to solve the problems by banning certain know hooligans from leaving the country via airports, ports and the most popular, the channel tunnel, by it is still possible to leave the country is an illegal manner and as we have already seen these people do seem not care about breaking the law. These systems could be improved by 'tagging' certain hooligans and then installing 'tag-detectors' at airports, ports and the channel tunnel in order to prevent them from spoiling the events in other countries.
It is know that if the 'Ring Leaders' are absent, most of the hooligans keep a low profile and don't cause as many problems. In most riot situations 'Riot Police are on stand-by and are usually called upon to resolve the situation if it gets out of control, like it did in Oldham with racial attacks. Today if a white British person attacks an Asian it is almost always classed as a racial attack even though this may not be the case and I feel that this is unfair because history suggests that if the attack was by an Asian on a white British man it may not be seen as racially provoked but a standard assault.
If I was to conclude who hooligans are and what the do in a couple of sentences then I would say: hooligans cause problems for what they call a laugh and do not think about anyone apart from themselves even though in most cases they are fairly intelligent and have families. The police are trying to stop this madness but are currently failing, but with the help of the Football Association, the public and an electronic tagging method, I believe that we can reduce the number of hooligans in Britain but in my opinion the problem would still remain.
No comments:
Post a Comment