Association football culture

Held every four years, the FIFA World Cup is a "month long festival of football", with The Independent adding "its extreme popularity across the expanse of the globe giving it a uniquely universal audience".

An example of this was the Italian player Paolo Di Canio who, while not given an award, was congratulated by many sections of the football world for a generous display of Fair Play.

More recently research has cast doubt on the effectiveness of alcohol restrictions on reducing the likelihood of disorder and violence, particularly involving English football fans such as the Heysel Stadium disaster.

[11] However, violent organised supporters' groups surrounding football have been prevalent in other countries, most notably barras bravas that emerged in Argentina in the 1950s, some years before the appearance of significant hooligan firms in England.

There have been incidents of fans being murdered, such as the killings of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, two Leeds United supporters, in Istanbul in 2000 on the eve of the UEFA Cup Semi-Final first leg.

CCTV inside and outside stadiums and also at other anticipated "flash points" such as city centres and railway stations now makes it more likely that people involved in disorder can be identified later even if they are not arrested at the scene.

One example includes a message to Christian Vieri, apparently by an Inter Milan fan, which threatened to burn down his restaurant, criticising his attitude towards the team.

[15] There is also the notorious incident where the Colombian international player Andrés Escobar was murdered shortly after returning home from the 1994 World Cup.

supporters firm) hooligans were arrested in a police raid after a military-issue smoke bomb was let out at a local pub after a fight with bouncers.

[17] In March 2000, the Seaburn Casuals fought with hooligans from the Newcastle Gremlins in a pre-arranged clash near the North Shields Ferry terminal, in what was described as "some of the worst football related fighting ever witnessed in the United Kingdom".

Larger clubs usually produce multiple-page programmes with features such as comments from the manager and club captain, interviews with players, ex-players and backroom staff, information about ticketing arrangements for forthcoming matches, a detailed fixture list and review of the team's season so far, competitions, pages for junior fans, and a detailed feature on the opposition.

Examples of pitch invasions include the 1923 "White Horse" FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium.

[26] Another well known invasion was carried out by Karl Power, who sneaked into Manchester United's team photograph before their UEFA Champions League match with Bayern Munich.

Brazilian striker Ronaldo was chosen as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme in 2000 as he had the highest global appeal among sportspeople.

Whilst referring to the celebration of a goal in general, the term can also be applied to specific actions, such as a player removing his shirt or performing a somersault.

On 5 September 1931, Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson suffered a skull fracture when he collided with Rangers player Sam English during an Old Firm match.

[41] On 10 September 1985, Scotland manager Jock Stein died of a heart attack as his team scored the equaliser against Wales which virtually secured qualification for the 1986 World Cup finals.

In 2003, Cameroon international player Marc-Vivien Foé collapsed during a FIFA Confederations Cup match against Colombia and was pronounced dead later that day.

On 9 September 2006, Hinckley United player Matt Gadsby collapsed on the pitch and died during a Conference North match against Harrogate Town.

[citation needed] On 29 December 2007, Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell suffered from a suspected heart failure on the pitch in a match against Dundee United, as a result of which he died several hours later in hospital.

Some of football's leading authorities, including former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, have argued this is detrimental to the game and an issue for supporters.

Several English players, including Paul Gascoigne and Teddy Sheringham, were photographed in Hong Kong after being seen in a bar pouring beer down each other's throats while the person sat on a dentist's chair.

[52] In 2004, the Leicester City trio of Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Keith Gillespie spent a week in prison after being accused of sexual assault while on a training break at the La Manga resort in Spain with their team.

[57] Lee Bowyer again made headlines in 2005 when he and Newcastle United teammate Kieron Dyer fought each other near the end of a Premier League match.

[59] This was followed by the 2006 Serie A scandal ("Calciopoli") in Italy where five clubs were found guilty for interference in the referees work by their leaders and resulted in several top clubs being penalised (most notably, Juventus was relegated to Serie B for the 2006–07 season and lost many top players) and getting their own title stripped off from them and being rewarded to Inter Milan, who were runners-up; and Apito Dourado in Portugal, with Porto and Boavista involved.

While incarcerated in Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela reflected on how playing football "made us feel alive and triumphant despite the situation we found ourselves in".

In the post-war era, Nicolas de Staël produced a series of paintings depicting a floodlit football match played between France and Sweden in 1952, entitled Les Footballeurs [fr].

consider that British football's image of a nasty working-class pursuit was changed into something far more respectable after Fever Pitch, a memoir by Nick Hornby about his life as an Arsenal fan, was published.

[citation needed] Numerous films have been made including Cup-tie Honeymoon (1947),[113] Bend It Like Beckham, and The Football Factory, based on the book by John King, dealing with hooliganism and its relationship to socio-economic realities in England.

[120] In July 2014, the Seychelles Health department blocked the football team from Sierra Leone from coming in to play qualification match for the Africa Cup of Nations.