Hooliganism On The Rise?

Numbers of hooliganism were on the decline but there is a concern that the numbers maybe on the rise. The police are worried about the possible emergence of a new teenagers and a new generation of hooligans. They are worried about these teenagers because they are becoming smarter about how and where they are committing hooligan acts. These teenagers are focusing on smaller teams and smaller leagues who have less resources to prevent and punish those who commit these acts. Recently, almost half of the incidents of disorderly conduct in recent seasons in England, Whales, and Ireland involved youth.
Teams and leagues are worried that since the youth are becoming disruptive at a young age and they will be a problem for many many years to come. A trend in the wrong direction as far as teams and leagues are concerned.
They really need to jump the gun and punish these youngsters hard and quickly to set and example and try to control the situation as much as possible. The teams and leagues with less resources have to get creative to help prevent the trend that they are seeing.
If the trend is not changed now, it will be an extreme problem for decades to come. Get creative and find new ways to prevent these acts from happening. Hit them hard with penalties and make examples of the young now to make things safer and more enjoyable for millions of fans to come.

Hooligans in LA

After winning the NBA Finals in 2000, Laker fans wanted to celebrate their first championship in 12 years. They decided to take to the streets. Police on foot and horseback were called in to disperse rioters, using batons and rubber bullets because they were using bottles as projectiles towards police and lit fires on the streets using pedestrians cars and police vehicles. Vandals smashed shop windows, looted stores, and damaged cars at a car dealership nearby the Staples Center. 20,000 fans and members of both teams were trapped inside the Staples Center after the game for their safety.
"This takes away from what happened here tonight," Magic Johnson said of the riots.
"There was glory tonight and there was sadness," Mayor Richard Riodan added.
Are you kidding me? The franchise that has won the second most titles in NBA history has a fan base that acts similar to what Chicago Cubs fans will act like when they win a World Series (in the next few years hopefully). Act like you have been there before people. Be excited about the success of your team but do it responsibly. Peoples' lives were changed because of a basketball game. Childish fans committing childish acts ruin the experience for many people. Thankfully nobody died in the incident. It is barely understandable for fans to act this way if they have waited over an extended period of time for a championship but for this fan bases to commit these acts is unacceptable. The sad thing is, there were multiple reports of the same thing happening during the Lakers 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2010 championship performances.

Deadliest top 10 hooliganism incidents

This table taken from idrottsforum.org shows how deadly something as great as sports can be. Most of these incidents are caused after a team wins and fans decide to go nuts. Stuff like this gives sports a bad name all over the world. There are thousands of people who have lost their lives to idiots (most likely drunk) who cannot control themselves.

Worst hooligan gangs

Ferencvaros, Hungary
This soccer hooligan gang is among the most violent in Eastern Europe. Their most hated enemies are the supporters of the rival city club Ujpest. Massive clashes of soccer thugs armed with baseball bats, chains or tasers are quite common before and after, sometimes even during these rivalry matches.

Juventus Torino, Italy
One of the most successful Italian soccer team has many fan, ultra and hooligan groups. A fan group called Drughi, for example, used to have over 10 000 members. As for the hooligan firms of Juventus, the Vikings are one of the most active.

Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine
Ukraine´s soccer clubs have been also facing significant hooliganism-related problems. Shakhtar is one of the most popular Ukraine´s team but its rowdies are no less famous. Firms like Weekend Team, The Club or Ultras 18 are feared by all other teams´ fans.

Universitario Lima, Peru
This team´s hooligans are the most violent in Peru and some of the most fearsome in whole South America. During Universitario´s matches, several away fans have been killed.

FC Zurich, Switzerland
Even Switzerland, the little elegant country has some hooligan issues. There are two irreconcilable rivals in the capital city – FC Zurich and Grasshoppers Zurich , whose matches are the so called “high risk games” requiring increased police presence in and around the stadium.

Creating a European sports police force

Michel Platini has raised the spectre of the Heysel disaster and warned of a growing issue of hooligans and political fanatics taking control in football stadiums in Europe.

The UEFA president, who was on the pitch for Juventus at the European Cup final in Brussels 30 years ago when 39 people - mainly from the Italian club - died after rioting Liverpool fans charged Juve supporters causing a wall to collapse. Platini has called for tougher stadium bans and a European-wide sports police force.

Speaking at the UEFA Congress in Vienna, Platini said: 'Europe is seeing a rise in nationalism and extremism the like of which we have not witnessed for a very long time.

This insidious trend can also be observed in our stadiums, as football is a reflection of society. Given its popularity, our sport is a barometer for the ills of our continent. And that barometer is pointing to some worrying developments.

'I therefore renew my call for greater awareness of this issue among the public authorities, so that we can avoid reliving the dark days of a not-so-distant past - a past where hooligans and all manner of fanatics called the shots in certain European stadiums.

'In recent months, we have all been struck by certain images that I thought were a thing of the past. Some of us experienced that past at first hand. In my case, it was exactly 30 years ago ... Nobody wants a repeat of such events.

We need tougher stadium bans at European level and - I will say it again - the creation of a European sports police force.'

Platini also appeared to have a veiled dig at Sepp Blatter for deciding to run for a fifth term as FIFA president despite having said at the UEFA Congress four years ago that his fourth term would be his last. Blatter then described himself as the 'captain of the ship in troubled waters bringing in back on the right route'. The Italian, who is himself being re-elected unopposed for a third term, told UEFA delegates: 'I regard myself as a simple team-mate - at most your captain. But not the captain of a ship that is being battered by a storm.'

New measure to fight hooiganism

Authorities introduce a new measure to fight hooliganism. Hooligans being banned from football stadiums will now also be prevented from going to hockey matches. Despite a raft of anti-hooligan measures, violence in and around Swiss football and hockey stadiums remains a persistent problem.The reciprocal new measure will affect the 974 hooligans—645 football-related and 329 hockey-related—who are currently on the so-called “Hoogan” database, monitored by the Federal Police Office.

Fernando Martins, the head of security at Neuchâtel’s FC Xamax, felt the move was a “good idea”. “Often the problems in football and hockey are created by the same people,” he told swissinfo.ch. Martins said he was preparing for the start of the season on July 17 “with confidence”, in the knowledge that Xamax was a small club that rarely experienced violence inside its new stadium, equipped with modern video surveillance cameras.
“If we spot anyone [violent] they are reported immediately to the police who do their job,” he noted.

But not all Swiss football clubs are as trouble-free as Xamax. Whereas other European countries appear to have nipped the problem in the bud a long time ago, there have been serious incidents at regular intervals in Switzerland, involving many of the top clubs, despite tougher measures introduced by the Swiss Football League in 2006.

Last season was plagued by a number of incidents. In May FC Basel fans rioted at the Letzigrund stadium of main rival FC Zurich and fans of FC Sion and FC Young Boys clashed in the centre of Bern before and after the Swiss Cup Final. In November around 25 people were injured in hooligan violence during a match in Basel between the hometown club and Zurich.

Cycling crowd control

World cycling godfather Brian Cookson has warned Tour de France delinquents who spat and threw urine over Chris Froom their “hooliganism” must stop.

As further video footage emerged of Team Sky staff running the gauntlet of hostile fans, Cookson admitted he was worried about behaviour at the roadside spiralling out of control.

Cookson, president of world governing body UCI (Union Cycliste International), condemned the spate of incidents in which Va Va Froome was pelted with beer, sputum and urine on the way to his second Yellow Jersey triumph.

Froome's team-mate Richie Porte revealed he was also punched on stage 10 of Le Tour.

And new video evidence, filmed within a support vehicle on the way up the Alpe d'Huez last Saturday, shows the hostile attitude of fans in the prevailing anti-Team Sky agenda.

Cookson admitted he was disturbed by the catalogue of misbehaviour, saying: “I am worried about the beginnings of an element of hooliganism coming towards our sport which we have largely been able to avoid in recent years.

“I think Chris was subjected to a fairly nasty form of antagonism from a small number of people.