We already know that some European police forces have a rather more… let’s say “physical” approach than our own Boys in Blue. So when I heard about the trouble at the Man Utd – Roma match last week, the claims of “over-reaction” rang true. Various reports (including BBC Radio 4 news) spoke of innocent families being trapped at the mercy of the ruthless Italian police. I was ready to fume at length about the irony of the situation… while Italian football has hit yet another grim low point, hooliganism in England has been vastly reduced since the bad old days of the 1970s and 80s. And yet we’re still judged according to that outdated reputation. Who are they to batter our fans when they can’t keep their own house in order?
And then I saw the TV footage.
For all I know, there may well have been innocent families trying to enjoy the match, but they weren’t evident. What I saw was a couple of hundred bullish men facing up to the Italian police, their chests and chins thrust forward in the “CAAAAHN THEN YOU FAKKIN WANKAHS!” stance, beer-reddened faces glistening in the floodlights. I’m no expert in crowd behaviour, but I’d suggest that’s probably not the best way to stay out of trouble.
We’ve become smug about our gentrified football industry with its prawn sandwiches, celebrity guests and sponsored family enclosures. However, there’s a danger that we’re blind to a new emergence of violence. Alex Ferguson isn’t always a reliable commentator on wider football matters; the protective leniency he shows to his own players is like that of a proud grandfather. However, I thought he was right on the mark when he claimed that a “mocking culture” in our society was behind the negative behaviour of England fans in the recent Euro 2008 qualifiers.
It doesn’t take a huge psychological leap to see how that could be connected with the prevalent “Me Me ME!” attitude in England… and from there to the self-righteous, seething arrogance of that small minority of Man Utd fans at the Roma match. Far from being unfairly victimised by over-zealous policemen, some of our football “fans” are starting to believe that they have a divine right to set their own standards of behaviour.
Can readers suggest a well-known London resident and friend of George Bush who is also guilty of this, I wonder? ;-)
You should have seen the lot who were over here in November for the Leverkusen “Friendly” match. We were setting up for the comedy show in the Hard Rock Cafe – something that wasn’t exactly going smoothly to start with, never mind the bunch of idiots making life hard for the staff of the HRC.
Eventually they left, and went to the match. They apparently smashed up a pub in the Altstadt on their return.
So much for the spirit of the World Cup, eh?