Understanding Football Hooliganism A Comparison of Six Western European Football Clubs pdf

Understanding Football Hooliganism A Comparison of Six Western European Football Clubs Ramón Spaaij Football hooliganism periodically generates widespread political and public anxiety. In spite of the efforts made and resources invested over the past decades, football hooliganism is still perceived by politicians, policymakers and media as a disturbing social problem. This highly readable book provides the first systematic and empirically grounded comparison of football hooliganism in different national and local contexts. Focused around the six Western European football clubs on which the author did his research, the book shows how different clubs experience and understand football hooliganism in different ways. The development and effects of anti-hooligan policies are also assessed.The emphasis throughout is on the importance of context, social interaction and collective identity for understanding football hooliganism. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in football culture, hooliganism and collective violence. ™xHSTAPGy294458z Ramón Spaaij is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a Research Fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research. Ramón Spaaij Understanding Football Hooliganism UvA Thesis Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM AUP/Spaaij 11-10-2006 12:54 Pagina 1 Understanding Football Hooliganism The research for this book was funded by the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Cover design: René Staelenberg, Amsterdam Cover illustration: Kees Spruijt ISBN-10 90 5629 445 8 ISBN-13 978 90 5629 445 8 NUR 756 © Vossiuspers UvA – Amsterdam University Press, 2006 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Understanding Football Hooliganism A Comparison of Six Western European Football Clubs Ramón Spaaij For Ingmar You who are in power have only the means that money produces, we who are in expectation have those which devotion prompts. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo vii Contents Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 Part I Football Hooliganism as a Transnational Phenomenon 1 Football Hooliganism: Concepts, Theories and Contexts 9 Introduction 9 What is football hooliganism? 10 Sociological approaches and their limitations 23 Fan cultures as glocal phenomena 31 Aspects of hooligan violence 34 Conclusion 53 2 Research Outline and Methodology 54 Introduction 54 Four theoretical themes 54 Landscapes of fear: the good, the bad and the ugly in football stigmas 58 A methodological note 66 Conclusion 75 Part II Football Hooliganism in Fan Cultures: National and Local Contexts 3 Setting the Stage: On the Emergence and Development of Football Hooliganism in England, the Netherlands and Spain 76 Introduction 76 Origins and development of the ‘English disease’ 77 Football hooliganism in the Netherlands: patterns of continuity and change 92 Ultras, hooligans and supporters: politics and violence in Spanish football 105 viii Conclusion 120 4 ‘Them Were The Days’: The Past and Present of Football Hooliganism at West Ham United 122 Introduction 122 Football in the community: the local rootedness of West Ham fan culture 123 ‘War on the terraces’: the emergence of football hooliganism 129 ‘Birch these thugs’: responses to football hooliganism 138 Terrace legends: nostalgia or revival? 146 Conclusion 157 5 Football Culture in SW6: Fulham FC, the ‘Friendly’ Club 160 Introduction 160 ‘Feeling Fulhamish’: the sources of Fulham fan culture 161 The emergence and development of football hooliganism at Fulham 170 ‘Not for the likes of us’: football violence and cultural trauma 176 Conclusion 183 6 ‘Rotterdam Hooligans!’: The Origins and Evolution of Football Hooliganism at Feyenoord 186 Introduction 186 Sterker door strijd: football and working-class culture in South Rotterdam 187 ‘Trouble on the terraces’: the development of football hooliganism 192 Football hooliganism after ‘Beverwijk’: threat and response 201 Conclusion 215 7 ‘Decency and Tradition’: Continuity and Change in Spectator Behaviour at Sparta Rotterdam 218 Introduction 218 The making of a ‘gentlemen’s’ club 219 ‘Not for the likes of us’: the place of violence in Sparta fan culture 224 Contesting traditions? The rise and development of the Sparta Youth Crew 234 Conclusion 245 ix 8 Orgulloso de ser perico: Politics, Violence and the Ultras of RCD Espanyol 248 Introduction 248 Fan culture and the politics of Catalan football 249 Siempre contra la peste culé: the rise of the ultras 255 The crisis of football hooliganism: official and grassroots responses 265 Conclusion 276 9 Cultural Heritage at Stake? The Emergence and Development of Football Hooliganism at FC Barcelona 278 Introduction 278 Més que un club: the meaning and identity of FC Barcelona 279 Passió blaugrana sense límits: the emergence of football hooliganism 287 Fragmentation and crisis: the development of inter-group relations 294 ‘Zero tolerance’: the transformation of FC Barcelona’s security regime 303 Conclusion 310 Part III Conclusions and Theoretical Implications 10 Club Cultures and Subcultures: Why Context Matters 313 Introduction 313 The emergence and diffusion of hooligan subcultures 314 The extent and nature of football hooliganism: national and local contexts 327 The social organization of football hooliganism 338 Conclusion 345 11 Transformations in Football Hooliganism: Formal and Informal Policies and Their Effects 347 Introduction 347 Tackling football hooliganism: the development of anti-hooligan policies 348 Street-level negotiations: the importance of social interaction 352 The changing geographical meaning of the stadium 361 [...]... that have emerged at several Israelian football clubs seem to be relatively pacified and when violence occurs, it is of a more spontaneous and unorganized nature than European and South American manifestations of football hooliganism Similarly, with regard to spectator violence at football matches in Yemen, Stevenson and Alaug (2001: 181) have argued that when crowd disturbances occur ‘they appear... that football hooliganism can be perceived as a specific form of spectator violence at football matches and identify a number of key dilemmas that thwart the conceptualization of the phenomenon in a comparative context In the second part of the chapter I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the dominant sociological approaches to the study of football hooliganism I argue that a common weakness... introduction of an intermediate category featuring spontaneous violence in socially organized fan groups, although I am well aware that the reality of football hooliganism is infinitely more complex and heterogeneous and cannot be fully captured in these analytical categories Table 1.1 shows the adapted framework for the comparative and historical analysis of spectator violence at football matches The black... targeting football hooliganism These aspects are temporally and spatially variable, and research into football hooliganism should therefore adopt a comparative approach There has been, up until today, little endeavour by academics to fully engage in the comparative study of football hooliganism The numerous books, articles and conference papers on the subject have advanced our knowledge of the phenomenon,... therefore disagree with Armstrong’s (1998: 21) statement that football hooliganism cannot really be ‘explained’ It can only be described and evaluated.’ This book seeks to develop a sociological understanding of football hooliganism as a transnational phenomenon by focusing on the extent and nature of football hooliganism in different national and local settings I would argue that we should take into account... this research on the manifestation of football hooliganism within different national and local settings has important theoretical implications for the study of football hooliganism Recent comparative research has principally concentrated on general ‘fault lines’ as an explanatory factor for cross-cultural variations in football hooliganism (Dunning, 1999; 2000; Dunning et al., 2002; Frosdick and Marsh,... cross-case variations but also of within-case variations, that is, of changes over time, similar to what George and Bennett (2005) call process-tracing in within-case analysis The extent and forms of football hooliganism are by no means fixed and unchanging For example, research suggests that in the 1990s the dominant forms of English football hooliganism changed considerably due in part to transformations... amount of books, articles and official inquiries on the nature and causes of football hooliganism It is a topic that everyone seems to have an opinion on But as the aforementioned examples demonstrate, the fact that football hooliganism is surrounded by a variety of, often fallacious, opinions and commonsense beliefs does not mean we are actually a lot closer to really understanding the phenomenon In fact,... notably in Argentina (Archetti and Romero, 1994; Alabarces, 2002; Alabarces et al., 2005) and Brazil (Toledo, 1994; Pimenta, 2000; 2003; Reis, 2003) The emergence of militant fan groups in Argentinian football, barras bravas or hinchadas, can be dated back to the 1930s and 1940s and thus seems to have originated notably earlier than their European equivalents (Duke and Crolley, 1996: 276).3 The scale... not only variations in the extent and nature of football hooliganism between societies, but also dissimilarities and resemblances within countries and localities Although manifestations of football hooliganism at different football clubs within one country may have much in common, football hooliganism is situated in the specific cultural and historical setting of individual football clubs and their . Understanding Football Hooliganism A Comparison of Six Western European Football Clubs Ramón Spaaij Football hooliganism periodically generates widespread. Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a Research Fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research. Ramón Spaaij Understanding Football Hooliganism UvA