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World Football > Soccer History > Football Modern Era

Today, football is played at a professional level all over the world, and millions of people regularly go to football stadia to follow their favourite team, whilst billions more watch the game on television. A very large number of people also play football at an amateur level. According to a survey conducted by FIFA and published in the spring of 2001, over 240 million people regularly play football in more than 200 countries in every part of the world. Its simple rules and minimal equipment requirements have no doubt aided its spread and growth in popularity.

In many parts of the world football evokes great passions and plays an important role in the life of individual fans, local communities, and even nations; it is therefore often claimed to be the most popular sport in the world. ESPN has spread the claim that the Cτte d'Ivoire national football team helped secure a truce to the nation's civil war in 2005. By contrast, however, football is widely considered to be the final proximate cause in the Football War in June 1969 between El Salvador and Honduras. The sport also exacerbated tensions at the beginning of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, when a Red Star Belgrade-at-Dinamo Zagreb match devolved into rioting in March 1990.

Hooliganism in European Football - Origins

Violence in football has existed long before the sport became organized. The earliest manifestations of this were sporadic bursts usually targeted towards referees and authority. Since the 1960, there has been intensive growth in organized hooliganism amongst British supporters. This trend gradually spread across many European nations especially Italy, Holland and Germany. By the early to mid-1970s, the major European teams had extremist supporters producing intense and persistent club rivalries.

Club teams experience more zealous support due to their localized disposition. Fans believe that regional clubs "represent" them more intimately: they may feature indigenous youth products and their matches are usually more accessible and frequent compared to national sides. On the international stage, feuds are usually brief and fueled by concurrent political issues. The more prevalent of these include England vs. Argentina (culminating at Mexico 1986) Brazil vs. Argentina, Scotland vs. England and Mexico vs. Honduras.

During the mid-1980s, Italian Ultras (ultra fans) pioneered what is considered to be fanatical or hooligan support. Their organized theatrical (often illegal) methods involve chanting, displaying colossal banners, breaking seats, fireworks, smoke bombs and even releasing small explosives all done at pivotal points of a match. Ultras transform matches into spectacles but at times their behavior advances to downright violence. Nearly all significant clubs have had their tour bus damaged and some form of violence brakes out at about 10% of all European club matches. In the more developed nations, strict security measures have impelled hooliganism outside of the stadium.

Hooligan groups are driven by various motives. Some express neo-nazi and racist inclinations but that is frequently done to shock the enemy team and to produce a more hostile environment.

Tackling Hooliganism

Only in developed western European nations have significant steps been taken to prevent football hooliganism. The English media have been accused and discouraged of sensationalizing acts of football violence. Hooligans relish in media attention thus the local media meagerly reflects on it. Improved policing methods have repressed hooliganism in the most likely places like the stadium. Apart from that, football-related violence and racism have been generally increasing across Europe.

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