The Numbers Behind Hooliganism

In the craziness that is hooliganism, there are some positives to take away from the subject in recent years. If you are looking at it from a statistical stand point, hooliganism is on the decline. As I have expressed in previous post, most of Europe has established policies against hooliganism. Although these numbers are from the 2010-2011, they are still encouraging.
- In the 2010-2011 soccer season, total attendance rose to over 37 million. The number of arrest is about 0.01% of those people. 1 out of every 12,249 fans were arrested for hooliganism.
This is great if you are looking at it just from a numbers stand point. But you have to remember of other severe cases of hooliganism where no or few arrest were made during an altercation. An American example of this would be one person getting arrested every Indiana Pacers game last season.
- The total number of arrest in England and Whales during the 2010-2011 season were down by 9% compared to the 2009-2010 numbers.
This is key because these are the two areas that are best known for hooligans getting together and causing mass mayhem. If the numbers are decreasing in the worst parts of Europe then numbers can only be getting better in other areas of Europe.
- 92% of those who were banned from attending games were no longer posing a risk while attending a soccer game after their banning orders became expired.
Those who were acting like hooligans have learned their lesson and are behaving in an acceptable manner now. Missing time from attending the games has caused most hooligans to think before they act now.
I believe that these policies and a new generation of people are the cause of this great trend. The new banning orders and policies put into place are really having an impact on how those who attend a soccer game act before, during, and after the game. They are fans and fans cannot truly enjoy their favorite sport and team if they cannot attend the games. It is impossible to attend games in you are in jail or have a ban where you can't walk into a stadium to watch a game. That has obviously come to mind now when people are making decisions at soccer games.
Another factor is it is a different generation of fans. Those who were hooligans mid to late 1900s are old people now and cannot act the way they once did. Could you imagine if these firms still had some of these guys in the group? Nothing like watching 60 and 70 year olds going at one another fighting. (I just visualized that in my head and that is hilarious) It is a new generation where violence isn't as big as it once was. Kids and young adults are not as ruthless as they once was which has helped the trend decrease as much as it has.
Could the number of arrest and bans be higher than they were? Sure. But the environment in and around soccer games are becoming a lot safer and more enjoyable to fans in most of Europe. The decrease in numbers is a positive but there is still a lot of work to do. It is just good to see that some of the precautions are finally paying off.