Football Hooliganism

Football hooliganism refers to destructive behavior that is performed by football fans and is widely considered to be unruly and destructive behaviour. Actions such as brawling, vandalism and intimidation are enacted by association football club fans participating in football hooliganism. 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 and small-scale fistfights to huge riots where firms attack each other with deadly weapons (including, but not limited to, sports bats, glass bottles, rocks, knives, machetes and pistols). 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 the most extreme cases, hooligans, police, and bystanders have been killed, and riot police have intervened with tear gas, armoured vehicles and water cannons.