Hooliganism.

Why is it that sports fans feel the need to behave in a disorderly manner, just to show support for their team? Obviously hooliganism is more concerned with football than any other sport, but still this is no excuse. I am already gearing up for the World Cup later this year, but I don’t intend to show my support by getting into drunken fights and slanging matches with the opposition. Unfortunately this doesn’t just extend to England fans, but also fans of nationwide teams and the reality is that Britain gets a bad name for this type of behaviour.

At one point, there was the threat of football fans being unable to watch football matches in stadiums if their behaviour continued, however according to new statistics, this message got through to people as the number of arrests made for hooliganism has decreased. The Home Office revealed its statistics for 2008-09 season and a total of 3,842 arrests were made at all international and domestic games, with no arrests made at 67% of matches, which was down a considerable amount from the previous year. These statistics mean that just 0.01% of 37 Million supporters attending matches in England and Wales last year, were arrested for football related violence.

http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/football-violence

Although these statistics show a healthy decrease, the reality is that hooliganism still exists, hopefully one day those select football fans will be able to support their team, without having to be violent.