NationStates Jolt Archive

It's World Cup time and once again England fans are in the news.

England fans held by riot police

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5112364.stm

Which begs the question: Are England fans more likely to riot and engage in hooliganism or has their past reputation led police to over react when England fans get a little rowdy?

It's not over-reacting. It's nipping it in the bud.

Of COURSE they will roit and are much more likely to.

Wither Empire...

Not sure. If we in Philidelphia gave a damn about football (see I'm calling it what you call it) we'd sure as hell riot.We're a bunch of angry drunken fans who's teams haven't won a championship in a little over 20 years.

For the record I am trying to start watching the world cup to see what the rest of the world likes about it and to be able to yell at other countries for no real reason.


Oh and Dallas sucks.:D

The earlier story from the BBC said that the German police were escorting a group of German fans out of the square, when these fans refused to pass a café that had a number of English fans in it. The German fans then started throwing bottles at the English fans. The German police said of this, that there was no trouble until the English fans arrived in the city. Huh?

This implies that the trouble was caused by the English fans. Now I do not call being the target that others are throwing bottles at causing trouble.

Having said that, in any crowd of 60,000 people there are going to be some idiots who get drunk and cause trouble. These deserve all the punishment they get.

Are English fans more likely to riot? No. The fans most likely to riot are the Germans and the Polish ones at the moment, though the Dutch always seem to be involved somehow.

If I remember well there is a club that are ultra fans of the Manchester United, and they're mostly brits, so I guess that they could riot a lot...

Not sure. If we in Philidelphia gave a damn about football (see I'm calling it what you call it) we'd sure as hell riot.We're a bunch of angry drunken fans who's teams haven't won a championship in a little over 20 years.



I will agree with you that Philadelphia (can't you spell your own city's name?) fans are the most uncouth, low class, no sportsmanship fans I have ever seen. This year when the Flyers were playing the Sabres they booed an injured Sabres player who had a concussion. When the announcer came on to ask for some class, they started booing and jeering even louder.

That is typical for Philly fans.

Well, I seem to recall that the first problems were between Polish and German fans, not the English.
I don't think nationality is much of a factor. Although I haven't seen many Ghanaian fans starting fights.

If I remember well there is a club that are ultra fans of the Manchester United, and they're mostly brits, so I guess that they could riot a lot...

I thought that the Ultra fans were an Italian phenomenon. Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras)agrees with me.

England will riot if they win or if they lose.

Compared to the international norm, British football culture is exceptionally violent. I am not surprised at recent events, that's just the type of following this game has always had here.

Compared to the international norm, British football culture is exceptionally violent. I am not surprised at recent events, that's just the type of following this game has always had here.

You are following the press misrepresentation of this. I can assure you that football fans here in Brazil are far more violent now than the British were at the height of the hooliganism in the late 70s. I lived through that and I am living through the weekly double figure death toll here.

Go look at the wiki list of Ultra Style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultras#List_of_groups) groups, to see that it is not specifically a British phenomenon

You know the whole world takes soccer too seriously. I don't mind watching it and I don't mind it at all, in fact I like soccer. I love baseball though and I can say that I've heard of less people dying at baseball games than at soccer games. When teams win, the fans riot; when teams lose, the fans riot. I would hate to be in a soccer town, I'd wake up the next morning and find my windows bashed and my car burned out.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-06-24T234901Z_01_L24598892_RTRUKOC_0_US-SOCCER-WORLD-ENGLAND-FANS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

When teams win, the fans riot; when teams lose, the fans riot. I would hate to be in a soccer town, I'd wake up the next morning and find my windows bashed and my car burned out.

What makes you think this? I have lived all my life in soccer towns, and it has never happened, to me, or my neighbours, or anyone I know.

Well, I seem to recall that the first problems were between Polish and German fans, not the English.
I don't think nationality is much of a factor. Although I haven't seen many Ghanaian fans starting fights.

That's all true. And I'll note (again) that my Polish/English friend told me the Polish news and websites say the trouble began with German neo-nazis and skinhead types selling/wearing offensive t-shirts.

I can't think of any cases of US fans being involved in World Cup associated rioting or major violence. (Although maybe we just reserve all our sports rioting and holliganism for gridiron, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey.)

And, looking over the list of Ultra groups, I'm rather surprised to see the number of US fanclubs listed as Ultras. I've been out of the US a long time, but I didn't think it had been that long... Did I miss something? Are are these fan clubs really Ultras, the start of a building US Ultra culture, or have they simply misunderstood or misappropriated the term?

It's a combination of the fact that-

England hooligans have a big rep. So they try and live up to it.
England hooligans have a big rep. So the police will beat the shit out of them and anyone near them just in case.
England hooligans have a big rep. So the rest of the world wants a bigger one by beating the shit out of them.


These 3(1) factor(s) are the cause of all the trouble.