Football Fanimals

Hooliganism wreaks havoc with soccer

At London's Upton Park, the Chelsea goalie lay bleeding and unconscious after being accidentally kicked in the head by a West Ham forward. "Let's have another one!" screamed the West Ham fans. Sporadic fights broke out in the stands, and 147 people were either arrested or ejected from the arena. At Millwall, in East London, 32 manic rooters for the home club were jailed in the wake of a mid-game brawl that left 45 injured, including eleven policemen. Returning to England after watching their team lose to a West German squad, Liverpool partisans looted a duty-free shop on the Channel ferry. After landing at Folkestone, they proceeded to ransack the special train that carried them the rest of the way home.

All across Britain, brawling soccer fans have exploded in mindless orgies, hurling bricks and bottles at one another, kicking and punching referees and policemen, roaming the streets on postgame sprees, breaking windows and trashing stores. A growing problem in other European countries as well, soccer hooliganism in England is at violent odds with the hand-clapping civility of Wimbledon and cricket crowds. Manchester United boosters, regarded by police as Britain's most savage, have been caught carrying razor-like, sharpened combs, brass knuckles, meat cleavers, chains and knives. In several stadiums the nastiest new weapon is the dart: two weeks ago, the London Daily Mail ran photographs of a pair of unlucky teen-age spectators with darts sticking out of their skulls.

On the theory that football "fanimals" have succeeded Teddy boys, skinheads, mods and rockers as England's latest cult criminals, sociologists and psychologists have been attending games to ponder and probe the causes. According to Oxford Psychologist Peter Marsh, the "Saturday afternoon fever" is a cathartic release from the drabness of weekday working-class life. Anthropologist Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape (and also a director of the Oxford United football team), dismisses the rowdyism as "ritual rudeness" with "little or no bloodletting, merely threat displays as in the animal world." In soccer fanaticism Morris detects "quasireligious elements and trappings of churchgoing as it used to be: the chanting, special costumes, rhythmic clapping and the rest. The singing of the Liverpool 'Kop' [end-zone crowd] resembles a cathedral choir"--at least when it sings out winning scores to the tune of Amazing Grace ("Two-one, two-oo-one, two-one, two-one").

Football Association officers take a less sanguine view of the violence. After the Millwall riot, liquor was permanently banned from the home field, and the team was penalized by being ordered to play all cup matches at opponents' arenas for the next two years. Other clubs have tried banning booze, increasing police protection and even eliminating special football trains to away games. Courts fine unruly fans, but $3.7 million worth of such fines remain unpaid by miscreants, most of whom are working-class youths.

"I just don't know the answer." confesses Sir Harold Thompson, chairman of the Football Association. "Hooliganism seems to be becoming a regular occurrence. I would like to see these people prevented from going to the matches by being locked up on Saturday."

Sir Walter Winterbottom, former manager of England's national team, has suggested a direct approach: install cages around the end zone, where standing-room crowds are packed in shoulder to shoulder, to control wild spectators. That might not be inconsistent with the fans' self-image. After being castigated by the press as "animals," supporters of Manchester United cheerfully responded with a new chant: "We hate the humans."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.