Media portrayal of (English) football fans

[R Mutt]

I'm not suggesting we are still viewed in the same light as the hooligans of the 80s, but in the sense of FA alcohol rules we are treated like that to an extent

However 2 recent TV programmes, The Champions League Final: What Went Wrong and Italia 90: When Football Changed Forever, seem to be trying to change that image.

Is this a coincidence or is there an agenda somewhere to improve this image? Previously the BBC loved a hooligan story so I was surprised by their recent Panorama. Or was that just a pro Liverpool agenda? After all it's never their fault.

[Da Original Whyayedee]

Oh now you've done it!

[GT03ROB]

R Mutt said:

Previously the BBC loved a hooligan story so I was surprised by their recent Panorama. Or was that just a pro Liverpool agenda? After all it's never their fault.

Run for the hills you must realise any criticism of them loveable scouse scallies is an automatic ban!

[R Mutt]

Well the Panorama thing seemed odd to me as no one really cares anymore, even if you accepted French authorities were out of order. Not something that anyone except Liverpool fans have been demanding an enquiry on, and even then the ones who didn't get tickets probably don't care

But retracting any dig at the Scousers, my question is why after all these decades of demonisation are there 2 TV shows redeeming football fans? Is there a push by someone to update regulations? Do the booze giants want more beer sold, or do the clubs want to increase capacity with safe standing, or are we expecting better treatment in Qatar if they think we're well behaved?

Edited by R Mutt on Thursday 27th October 12:46

[DodgyGeezer]

to be honest it does 'amuse' me when the Red side of Liverpool are constantly portrayed as victims and yet Heysel is rarely, if ever, mentioned

[Da Original Whyayedee]

DodgyGeezer said:

to be honest it does 'amuse' me when the Red side of Liverpool are constantly portrayed as victims and yet Heysel is rarely, if ever, mentioned

Anytime Heysel is mentioned its always "How far back into the past do you want to go?" but no one should ever forget about Hillsborough, ever ever even though it didn't effect the majority of us. What does effect us, not being able to enjoy a beer watching the game, even though again the vast majority are responsible humans.

The whole Paris thing, its evident that there was organisational mistakes and chaos on the French part, but that seems to have once again given Liverpool a free pass to whitewash any bad behaviour and fake tickets, which there is also big evidence to support too.

Football has changed in a lot of ways for the better, the thuggery and hooligan element is for the mostly in the past. I was at that infamous Cardiff vs Millwall game in 1999 as a teenager, and it was pretty mental, but that seems to be a thing of the past now.

[HBelder]

Remembering being 16 at The Shed when Millwall played. Today is a world away from that situation so maybe some supportive reporting is justified.

Get 10s of 0000’s of people together and there will be always some unusual people.

Liverpool supporters? David Squires’ weekly strip always makes me laugh. Not this week.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactiv...

Edited by HBelder on Thursday 27th October 13:45

[R Mutt]

Da Original Whyayedee said:

DodgyGeezer said:

to be honest it does 'amuse' me when the Red side of Liverpool are constantly portrayed as victims and yet Heysel is rarely, if ever, mentioned

Anytime Heysel is mentioned its always "How far back into the past do you want to go?" but no one should ever forget about Hillsborough, ever ever even though it didn't effect the majority of us. What does effect us, not being able to enjoy a beer watching the game, even though again the vast majority are responsible humans.

The whole Paris thing, its evident that there was organisational mistakes and chaos on the French part, but that seems to have once again given Liverpool a free pass to whitewash any bad behaviour and fake tickets, which there is also big evidence to support too.

Football has changed in a lot of ways for the better, the thuggery and hooligan element is for the mostly in the past. I was at that infamous Cardiff vs Millwall game in 1999 as a teenager, and it was pretty mental, but that seems to be a thing of the past now.

Perhaps we can view these the 2 programmes in isolation and BBC's angle was 'We're better than The Sun and won't blame the victims'. Although the C4 trailer had a clip of Thatcher denouncing hooligans so I'm not sure what their message is

[Pitre]

I have been going to matches all through the dark days of the 70s and 80s, and seen some very nasty incidents with fans. Personally, I feel that the whole hooligan aspect has faded since all-seater stadiums were introduced for the Prem. However there is often an undercurrent of nastiness that the whole tribal side of football generates, plus I've recently witnessed coked-up youths getting very excited and liable to turn violent if opposition fans were around. I don't think the dark days will return as the police are far more organised these days too and ticketing is better controlled. However, incidents such as Wembley last summer when loads of fans forced entry shows that it's very close to boiling over. Plus I'm not planning a visit to the likes of Millwall any time soon.

The footballing powers that be need to remain very wary about the risks of hooliganism, but I'm confident that the World Cup matches in Qatar will be ok (especially as Russia aren't going), and I remain fairly optimistic that English football has a lid on it at least. This being so, the media should continue to treat hooliganism as 'old news' hopefully.