Play the game – end the thuggery (From The Argus)
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Play the game – end the thuggery
11:08am Thursday 9th February 2012 in Comment and Analysis By Ben Parsons
Every year Brighton and Hove Albion supporters and Crystal Palace fans play a challenge match to raise money for the Robert Eaton Memorial Fund.
The fans unite to commemorate Robert Eaton, who died in the September 11 attacks in New York, and raise funds for football projects overseas.
One participant in Robert Eaton matches, Jamie Nottage, was arrested when Palace visited Albion in September last year.
CCTV footage showed him throwing a missile and making throat-slitting gestures at Palace supporters as they were escorted by police on September 27.
In one setting he could work with Palace fans in a spirit of solidarity; in another he was abusing them in the street.
This is just one example of a twisted rivalry between the supporters causing police alarm.
Superintendent Simon Nelson, of Sussex Police, says: “There is that risk of general disorder because of the hatred that exists.
“That manifests itself from verbal abuse up to antisocial behaviour, to extremes of violence given the opportunity and depending on the individual.
“There is a risk of supporters who wouldn’t usually engage in disorder getting involved.”
Supt Nelson joined the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday night as they monitored Albion’s visit to Selhurst Park.
He described groups of up to 150 chanting abuse at rival fans, and trying to reach one another.
The trouble followed widespread confrontations and dozens of arrests surrounding Palace’s visit to the American Express Community Stadium in Brighton.
For some supporters these sorts of scenes have evoked unhappy memories of the 1980s.
Liz Costa, vice-chairwoman of Albion’s supporters’ club, told The Argus ahead of this week’s game that supporters last seen at the Goldstone Ground had returned and soured the atmosphere against teams like Palace and Leeds.
She said some fans would not travel to Selhurst Park this week because they feared trouble.
Fans in the gentrified world of stewarded all-seater stadia and high ticket prices are unaccustomed to the sort of mass confrontations which characterised the hooliganism of old.
While at Withdean, Albion and Sussex Police worked systematically to remove dangerous supporters. There are currently 30 people serving football banning orders imposed by courts to stop them going to Seagulls games.
Another 15 could still be slapped with the orders after the trouble when Palace visited the Amex.
Changes to stadia and the barring of hooligans mean violence and confrontation is largely unknown in or around grounds.
Supt Nelson says: “What we are pleased to see is a dramatic reduction in violence at football games which is a marked difference from the national picture in the 1970s. What we will always have is small groups of individuals who have very little interest in the game but share a common interest in seeking confrontation and embarking on violence.”
Clashes are not unknown.
In September 2009 a punch-up took place in Clarendon Road, Hove, near The Exchange pub, on the day of a game against Southend. When Albion visited Southend later in the season, a man was stabbed in a planned fight on the resort’s seafront.
University of Brighton criminologist Professor Peter Squires says: “In the past, there was an opportunity to kick off in a relatively anonymous way and hide in the crowd.
“They have really made grounds almost theme-park safe, with surveillance, stewarding and policing.
“It has tended to spill off in other areas and pick up a desperate, fag-end masculinity that has nowhere else to go and show off its muscles. The loyalty is almost irrelevant. They may or may not be football fans. It is more about their other needs than anything they are actually defending.”
In July 2010, a pitched battle was fought between Albion hooligans and a group of Tottenham Hotspur supporters acting on behalf of Aberdeen fans.
This week 12 men were given sentences totalling nearly 20 years for taking part in that fight.
Some of the Spurs hooligans jailed had long histories of clashes with other clubs’ followers. Judge David Rennie drew a distinction between hooligans and fans. He told the defendants: “There are enormous numbers of genuine football supporters, who loyally support their chosen clubs, and who never behave in a violent or aggressive manner.
“They treat supporters of opposing clubs normally, and with due respect. They are a credit to the sport. Then there are other people, who, as a one-off or on a regular basis, choose to become involved in violence.
“When this happens, such people are no longer supporters of a sport or a club. They become an embarrassment to the sport and to the clubs in question.”
In some ways, no doubt, football culture inevitably gives rise to a macho posturing.
Prof Squires, says: “It is what you call atmosphere. There is a fine line to be drawn between a high level of atmosphere and when it starts becoming disorderly.”
In many ways it is identity – which could equally apply to a school, a housing estate or a gang – which inspires these violent loyalties. This was associated with – or thinly excused by – high unemployment and general social problems.
So as we return to 1970s-style economic conditions, will we see the social problems of that era return?
In the popular mind hooliganism remains something from the past, characterised in old news footage of pitch invasions.
But it is clear from this week’s trial and the heavy policing required for the two Palace games that it is still with us.
One thing the sentences passed at Hove Crown Court this week showed – to the obvious surprise of some of those in the dock – was that jail terms await those who are caught indulging in this unacceptable thuggery.
