The Lang report Essay Example for Free

The Lang report Essay The Lang report was one of the first reports to not only investigate why hooliganism occurred, but measures to stop it from occurring in the future it reported that:  There can be no doubt that the consumption of alcohol is an important factor in crowd misbehaviour  In more recent reports hooliganism has not only been committed outside or in the stadium. Under cover operations have revelled that hooliganism has become more organised where the ringleaders of sets of troublemakers on opposing sides have been in contact with each other and meet at a predetermined destination to fight. The advantage of this for them is that there wont is police patrolling that area so they can get away with it. The methods the authorities have developed to stop it,  The approach taken by the British authorities to reducing football hooliganism has been largely increasingly sophisticated policing, surveillance and monitoring techniques, segregation of fans, restrictions on alcohol etc. The British Government has also introduced specific legislation to cover acts of hooliganism.  Such measures are common elsewhere in Europe, the German, Dutch and Belgian authorities, in particular, have been more proactive in their approach to the problem. The development of fan coaching schemes appears to have had an impact on levels of violence in certain areas. Such schemes, which involve social workers deployed with groups of fans, provide useful models for other countries. German clubs are involved to an extent in the fan coaching schemes; elsewhere there is little contact between club officials and the fan groups. Very recently the British police have started using the Spotter system. This is a system that is used throughout the season in the English Premier and Football Leagues. A police liaison officer is attached to a particular club and has the responsibility of identifying and monitoring hooligans, usually travelling to away games and assisting the local force with the detection of hooligans. Identified hooligans would be banned from viewing all of there teams games and before European and international ties take place, their passports are confiscated so that the wont travel to the away games in other countries and cause any trouble. Another scheme introduced was a hooligan hotline whereby supporters could phone in and report incidents of hooliganism and perhaps even identify perpetrators. Although this scheme was promoted as being entirely new, similar schemes have been in existence since 1988, when the West Midlands police set up a 24-hour hotline. Conclusion I believe as long as football exists there will be hooliganism as when people have differences of opinions there are always going to be some narrow minded people who will get angry and lash out. This may be on supporters of the opposing side, the authorities or vandalism of public property. However although I believe hooliganism will always exist I believe that there are things that increase the likelihood of such acts occurring these include:  Drink, which heightens peoples emotions making them more likely to get angry and it also, stops them from fearing fighting and the law. When people drink they stop thinking rationally and do things that they otherwise wouldnt do. Troublemakers these people come to a stadium often not watching the match especially to get into a fight. They often encourage drunken supporters into joining in with there trouble making. They often taunt opposing fans in the hope that there will be a fight.  The mood of the fans contributes to hooliganism, as if the supporters have had a good journey and their team has a good result then they will be in a good mood hence being less likely to cause trouble  Security presence, will act as a deterrent to hooligans as they will not want to be punished for their actions, so if there are many police officers they wont want to start trouble. Although there are still the occasional instances of hooliganism the police have done well in dramatically cutting down the amount of them. They are co-operating much more with their European counterparts and have new measures such as the spotter system and the hooliganism hotline. However there is more that the government can do I believe the police should be given greater powers in arresting and prosecuting hooligans. Penalties for hooligans should be a lot more severe in order to act as a deterrent. Also everyone entering a stadium should undergo a breathalyser test to see if they are over the legal alcohol limit and if they are they should be taken to the police station and fined and banned from viewing there team play for a set period of time. I believe that this will not only act as a deterrent but it will stop the trouble makers from coming to the football so the atmosphere in the stadium will good and the emphasis on having a good time. This will also increase the popularity of the sport as more families will come to watch the sport introducing a new generation of football lovers who wont be interested in hooliganism, just in the sport. Appraisal of study  The problem with my project was that as I choose the subject matter of hooliganism. It was very hard to find facts and figures to back up my points all I could find to prove my points were discussions and reports about this study. Though these reports were written by experts in this field, they too had to work in the same conditions without facts to back up what they were saying, so I am only going on what they believe and they cannot prove what they are saying to be true. So if I were to improve this project I would have to get some data to prove my theories to be correct.