Getting a grip on football hooliganism - Gareth Johnson MP
Aden Simpson
| PoliticsHome
We must make more effort to identify, ban and convict the football fans implicated in violence abroad, says Gareth Johnson MP, and stop England’s name being dragged through the mud.
Before England’s first game of Euro 2016 had even kicked off, news channels all over the world were flooded with scenes of a de facto war zone, as supporters clashed with French police, locals and other fans.
Flares, bottles and restaurant chairs were hurtled at police through clouds of tear gas - one cafe was even set on fire - while smartphone videos showing racist chanting and the taunting of refugee children circled the web. Football hooliganism is making a comeback.
“You don’t need to be a football expert to be humiliated by English fans,” says Tory MP Gareth Johnson. “There’s no way I would take my family to watch England play abroad because I would fear for their safety.
“That’s a great shame,” he adds, “we should be making it as safe as we possibly can.”
Since its peak in the 1980’s football authorities have tried everything under the sun to snuff out alcohol-fuelled football violence, with varying degrees of success.
Some associations reschedule high risk games for earlier in the day, giving fans less time to drink beforehand; others, like the French today, urge its host cities to ban the sale of alcohol in “sensitive” districts.
In 2014 UEFA simply banned all fans from attending a Champions League match between Manchester City and CSKA Moscow, as a punishment for repeated violence. The game played out to an empty stadium.
In the UK it was Tony Blair who perhaps did more to stamp out football violence among England fans. In 1998 he even urged UK employers to sack anyone convicted of disorder in the France world cup.
A year later Blair introduced The Football Offences and Disorder Act 1999, giving courts the power to issue ‘banning orders’ on those identified as having taken part in match-related violence, and seize their passports for periods spanning fixtures.
For Johnson, it is the latter of Blair’s solutions that the Government should now pursue.
“It’s a very effective tool. A lot of those hardcore football hooligans had been stopped, but others have now taken their place - once there’s alcohol consumed, disorder is not far behind.
“In recent years the number of people who have been made subject to banning orders have gone down, while the number of incidents of football hooliganism has clearly been on the increase.”
The “beauty of a banning order,” says Johnson, is that it can be imposed on people whether they’ve been arrested in France or not, and determined by a UK court on the basis of evidence such as smartphone video.
UK police already attend fixtures to collect evidence of fans involved. 20 individuals have been identified so far this year, who will all be subject to banning orders when they return, but Johnson believes we should be identifying more.
“The other thing I’d like the Government to consider is giving courts the power to try people for football violence-related crimes committed abroad,” he adds.
“Currently this only applies to a limited number of offences, such as sexual offences. But it’s probably time to consider whether or not we should widen the scope of that to include football tournaments and disorder.”
Johnson is leading a Westminster Hall debate on the topic this afternoon, to press ministers on the viability of these measures.
“We really need to get to grips with it, otherwise England’s name will keep getting dragged through the mud,” he adds.
“In my opinion, if you go abroad and commit this sort of disorder, you forfeit the right to follow the England team.”
