‘Football hooliganism’

Couple of days ago, I witnessed the aftermath of the football match between Sunderland and Newcastle. It was a chaotic situation, with people yelling and breaking bottles and being aggressive. Police was trying to ease the situation and it finally did. While I was staring, I was wondering which laws prevent such incidents from occurring.  I will share with you some of my findings. First and foremost, a major wagon used is the banning orders.

Section 30 of the Public Order Act 1986 provided powers to control the movement of ‘hooligans’, by serving with ‘exclusion orders’ those convicted of ‘football-related’ offences. Consequently, it became a criminal offence to attend ‘designated football matches’ during the currency of the Order. These orders were seen as a successful weapon in the dismantling of several prominent ‘firms’. The Football Spectators Act 1989 (Part 2, S.15) extended these powers by allowing for the imposition of ‘restriction orders’ following conviction for football-related offences to prevent the defendant from leaving the UK when English teams were playing abroad.[1] Moreover, the Football (Disorder) Act 2000 (which amended the Football (Offences and Disorder) Act 1999) was introduced as the aforementioned Acts were not sufficient to grant a restriction order in the absence of a conviction. The 2000 Act allowed ‘banning orders’ to be granted where the courts were satisfied that the order would help to prevent violence or disorder in connection with regulated matches. A Banning Order can now be granted against persons who are convicted with relevant offences (s.14A) and also can be made ‘on complaint’ of a chief officer of police against a person who had ‘at any time caused or contributed to any violence or disorder in the United Kingdom or elsewhere’ (s.14B). Persons subject to an order were not allowed to attend domestic football games and they also had to report to a police station at the time the matches were playing abroad. In addition, they had to surrender their passports.[2] The banning orders, especially the 2000 Act, succeeded to reduce dramatically the incidents of hooliganism during the last years.[3]

 

The aforementioned laws are indeed harsh but at the same time effective. There are some concerns regarding proportionality and Human Rights (as fundamental rights are infringed, such as art. 5, 6, 8 and the free movement of persons) but this is a long discussion. Overall, I believe that the banning order might be an effective response to football hooliganism but as it happens with most, if not all, of the legislations BOs carry negative aspects.

Further Reading:

Beloff, M. J. (2006) ‘Editorial’ International Sports Law Review, I.S.L.R. 55

James, M. & Pearson, G. (2006) ‘Football Banning Orders: Analyzing their Use in Court’ Journal of Criminal Law, JoCL 70 (509)

Samuels, A. (2002) ‘Football Hooliganism: Stopping it, and Punishing it’ Justice of the Peace, (2002) 166 JPN 426

Blackshaw, I. (2001) ‘Football hooligans and human rights’ New Law Journal, 151 NLJ 1562

Thomas, D.A. (2008) ‘Sentencing: Football Spectators Act 1989 - banning order made on conviction for offence’ Criminal Law Review, Crim. L.R. 575

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[1] Stott, C. & Pearson, G. (2006) ‘Football Banning Orders, Proportionality, and Public Order Policing’ The Howard Journal, Vol 45 No 3

[2] Beloff, M. J. (2006) ‘Editorial’ International Sports Law Review, I.S.L.R. 55 

[3] Stott, C. & Pearson, G. (2006) ‘Football Banning Orders, Proportionality, and Public Order Policing’ The Howard Journal, Vol 45 No 3