Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title The rise of disorder at football: why is it happening and what can be done? Media name/outlet The Guardian Media type Web Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 18/02/22 Description On-and-off lockdown kept people in their homes for 18 months and out of stadiums for almost a season and a half. Upon return there has been a release of pent-up energy and a rise in what Geoff Pearson, a senior lecturer in criminal law at Manchester University and leading expert in football hooliganism, calls “carnivalesque” behaviour with transgression at its core.
“I do think there has been a post-pandemic increase in antisocial behaviour and low-level nuisance disorder more broadly,” he says. “Remember it is an offence to enter a football ground while drunk. It is also a criminal offence to engage in indecent chanting. Chucking plastic bottles or your pints in the air are also illegal … these are more the low-level disorder offences we are seeing and they are seen [by fans] as being transgressive rather than deliberate criminality.
“There’s a subculture who go to football, mainly lads and anything from teenagers through to 60-odd, who go for a transgressive experience. Watching the football is only one element of what is important to the day. Getting absolutely blottoed in whatever way, having a sing-song, hanging around with your mates, expressing your identity and coming back with a bunch of stories that will get you through the working week is what it’s about.”URL https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/feb/18/the-shocking-rise-of-disorder-at-matches Persons Geoff Pearson
Keywords
- football violence