May 22, 2013
The week's top five must-sees,
delivered to your inbox.
Features include interactive map, in-depth stories, and more.
Download now. »
The week's top five must-sees,
delivered to your inbox.
|
Description
Football hooliganism refers to what is widely considered unruly, violent, and destructive behaviour by overzealous football fans. Actions such as brawling, vandalism and intimidation are enacted by association football club fans participating in football hooliganism. A football firm is a gang formed for the specific purpose of antagonising and physically attacking supporters of other clubs. The behaviour is often based upon rivalry between different teams and conflict may take place before or after football matches. Participants often select locations away from stadia to avoid arrest by the police, but conflict can also erupt spontaneously inside the stadium or in the surrounding streets.
Football hooliganism can range from shouts, spitting and small-scale fistfights to huge riots where firms attack each other with deadly weapons. In some riots, stones, bricks, flares, smoke bombs and even Molotov cocktails are thrown. In some cases, stadium brawls have caused fans to flee in panic and injuries have been caused when fences or walls have collapsed from the pressure of the exiting crowd. In some football riots, the chaos spreads to the city area surrounding the football field, and shop windows may be smashed, rubbish bins set on fire, and police cars may be overturned. In the most extreme cases, hooligans, police, and bystanders have been killed, and helmeted, body-armoured riot police have intervened with tear gas, police dogs, armoured vehicles and water cannons.
(via Freebase)
|
![Police indict over 20 fans and players in Ramat Gan soccer riot [IBA, Israel]](/images/image_cache/base-3526000/3526787/thumbnail.width=304,height=171,grow=1,crop=center.jpg?sig=14dd3bcdeaa4440c046e0f48ee7d71bc)