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The emergence of football spectating as a social problem

This paper, a version of which was written in 1986, seeks to be iconoclastic in nature. Firstly, it undermines the notion that England in general and the terraces of football stadia in particular enjoyed, until recently, a way of life that stressed harmony and peace. This task was accomplished by a substantive analysis of the development of football as a spectator sport. By so doing an alternative conceptualization is proposed. It is contended that the emergence of football spectating as a social problem was an articulation and reflection of competing definitions of codes of conduct and ways of living evident in English society. Crucial in this regard has been, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and more recently in this century, a more or less progressive narrowing of the limits of behaviour that would be tolerated in public. More adequate studies need to examine both the ‘objective condition’ and ‘subjective definition’ of football hooliganism and football hooligans, and indeed of ‘riots’ more generally – and do so in an interdependent manner.