Football Hooligans in England E-Book

Thomas Schachtebeck

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, Free University of Berlin (Fachbereich Englisch), course: Verttiefungsmodul Culture - Gender - Media II, language: English, abstract: Contents 1 Introduction 2 Spotlight on Football Hooligans – A Theoretical Background 2.1 Defining the Terms “Hooligan” and “Hooliganism” 2.2 The History of Football Hooliganism in England 2.3 The Subculture of Football Hooligans – Specific Characteristics, Attitudes and Behaviour Patterns 2.4 A Typical Day of Football Hooligans 3 The Representation of Masculinity in John King’s The Football Factory 3.1 The Meaning of Violence and Gang Fights 3.2 The Importance of Male Bonding 3.3 Male Sexuality and the Protagonist’s Attitude towards Women 4 Conclusion References [...] The reason why the phenomenon of hooliganism is so strongly linked to football is because this kind of sport is seen “as an appropriate venue for [...] aggressive rivalries, partly because of the working class roots and traditions of the game but also because of the culturally prescribed ‘territorial’ and masculine values which are intrinsic to it.” (Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research 2001: 1) Thus, there is no doubt that typical attitudes and emotions representing “true masculinity” (Holt 1989: 8), such as the celebration of physical strength and the loyalty to ‘mates’ or to a specific territory, are traditional and popular features of football culture. [...] Since meanwhile, the male-dominated subculture of football hooligans has not only grown to a serious problem in England but also in many other countries around Europe, football-related antisocial behaviour has become a subject to much discussion about masculinity and subcultures in the fields of academics and the media over the past several years and decades. Consequently, my paper aims at presenting football hooliganism as a male subculture with its own values and rituals, which are clearly different from those of our dominant culture, and, furthermore, it tries to analyse what images of masculinity are associated with the subculture of – particularly English – football hooligans. Therefore, my paper will first provide some important theoretical background information about hooligans, which are necessary in order to get into the topic of football hooliganism more elaborately. Then, it will analyse why hooligans belong to a certain form of subculture by presenting and explaining specific characteristics, attitudes and behaviour patterns of football hooligans, and, finally, it shall explore what kind of masculinity is represented by the football hooligans described in John King’s novel The Football Factory.

Leseprobe

Table of Content

1 Introduction.

Spotlight on Football Hooligans - A Theoretical Background.

2.2 The History of Football Hooliganism in England.

2.4 A Typical Day of Football Hooligans.

The Representation of Masculinity in John King’s The Football Factory.

3.1 The Meaning of Violence and Gang Fights.

3.2 The Importance of Male Bonding.

Male Sexuality and the Protagonist’s Attitude towards Women.

4 Conclusion.

Page 2

Football Hooligans in England-ASubculture Struggling for Power, Respect and Male Identity

1 Introduction

Throughout the history of sports events, there have always been crowd disorder and spectator violence all over the world. Usually, such incidents are most likely to occur in and around large stadia in which thousands of spectators supporting rival teams come together. In“The Sporting Spirit”, George Orwell made the observation that “[a]ssoon as strong feelings of rivalry are aroused, the notion of playing the game according to the rules always vanishes. People want to see one side on top and the other side humiliated, and they forget that victory gained through cheating or through the intervention of the crowd is meaningless. Even when the spectatorsdon‟t intervene physically they try to influence the game by cheering their own side and „rattling‟ opposing players with boos and insults.” Consequently, Orwell infers that “[s]erioussport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnissing violence: in other wordsit is war minus the shooting” (Orwell 1945: 1). Of course, Orwell‟s view of “serious sport”might appear to be slightly exaggerated at first sight, but, in fact, it describes the nature of rivalry and competition, which is central to almost every kind of sports contest, very well. However, if one thinks of a typical sport representingOrwell‟sunderstanding of the spirit of sports activities, football is often regarded an excellent paradigm because of its very aggressive and even martial character. Unfortunately, as far as football spectators are concerned, there are not only fans who cheer their team and sporadically insult opposing players or fans but also fanatical supporters who do not hesitate to use physical violence against rival fans. Although such violent and antisocial behaviour used to be rare among football spectators until the middle of the 20thcentury, it has become more frequent since the 1960s.

In Europe-and particularly in England, which is said to be the home country of modern football-football is the most popular kind of sport since it attracts millions of enthusiastic spectators and fans all around the continent. International football competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup are publicly not only regarded as pure sports events but also as a contribution to intercultural communication and understanding. However, since the 1960s, football has also been intensively confronted-like no other kind of sport in Europe - with a very severe form