Football Ultras: Are English fans being targeted?

National World - LocalTV

Violence from European football ultras towards English supporters has reported to have increased when English sides take on European opponents in UEFA competitions. We take a look at the situation.

Transcript

00:00 In the 1970s and 80s, football hooliganism was rife in this country, ravaging the streets

00:11 around stadiums and the terraces. And whilst football violence in this country has reduced

00:16 since then, on the continent, a new wave of football ultras are taking over that unwanted

00:23 reputation. For example, earlier in the year, when Newcastle supporters were in Milan, one

00:30 unfortunate fan was stabbed whilst walking back to his hotel. And whilst no ultra group

00:36 of AC Milan has claimed responsibility for the incident, the supporter did miss the match

00:42 at the San Siro the following evening. Furthermore, other incidents such as Newcastle supporters

00:48 being attacked in Paris and Legia Warsaw supporters causing violence before their game against

00:55 Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League show that the problem is starting to become

01:00 more prominent.

01:07 The Daily Mail's Adam Patel wrote recently that unlike in years gone by, it is not so

01:12 much English fans misbehaving when abroad, but gangs of attention-seeking ultras who

01:18 align themselves with European clubs that are now the frightening norm, making life

01:23 incredibly uncomfortable for real fans. Football hooliganism expert Geoff Pearson commented

01:30 that English fans have been attacked pretty much wherever they've gone in Europe. So,

01:37 why is this? Well, as noted by Patel in his article, according to author James Montagu,

01:43 the one who actually surrounded himself in the culture of football ultras, the far right

01:48 of the political spectrum has become ingrained in this culture as a way of perpetuating extreme

01:54 ideologies that go hand in hand with violence. Policing this can require huge operations

02:00 and intelligence as to how events might unfold. UEFA, the governing body of European football,

02:07 have not yet acted to try and quash this issue. And with more European fixtures set to be

02:13 played next week, we look more into the ultra culture when European teams come to play opponents

02:20 in this country. For now though, it seems that the ultra culture of European football

02:31 is here to stay. This will be a worry to football supporters who simply want to watch their

02:37 team play in the biggest UEFA competitions, with no intentions of being involved in violence.

02:44 Whilst ultras themselves might argue that they show the highest possible levels of passion

02:48 for their teams, others would say that causing violence and disorder over a football match

02:55 is never warranted, and that they should stick to simply watching the game like the rest

03:01 of the fan bases.

03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended