Football hooliganism

In 1885, after Preston North End beat Aston Villa 5–0 in a friendly match, both teams were pelted with stones, attacked with sticks, punched, kicked and spat at.

[34] Croatian hooligans are also notorious for staging large illegal pyroshows at stadiums, where signal flares and smoke bombs are hurled onto the pitch causing postponement or cancellation of the match.

[66] In 2022 there was chaos at the UEFA Champions League final with dozens of arrests and hundreds of injuries, mainly to Liverpool fans who were locked out of the stadium and being attacked by Parisian gangs.

[98] Police, who found the gun, have stated that they do not believe that the shootings were related to other clashes by the two sets of fans: prior to the game, there were reports of firecrackers and other projectiles being thrown between them in the Tor di Quinto area of Rome.

Hooliganism is also rooted in deep political divisions arising from the General Franco fascist regime days (some Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Espanyol, Real Betis and Valencia ultras are linked to franquista groups), others with communist leanings (such as Deportivo La Coruña, Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla, Celta de Vigo, Rayo Vallecano) and the independence movements in Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque region.

[134] There also have been local or regional disputes between rival teams, for example between Cádiz and Xerez, Betis and Sevilla, Osasuna and Real Zaragoza, or Deportivo de La Coruña and Celta.

During crowd disorder control manoeuvres after a match between Athletic Bilbao and FC Schalke 04, home supporter Iñigo Cabacas [eu] (who was not involved in hooliganism) was shot in the head with a 'Flash-ball' fired by a member of the Ertzaintza police service and later died.

Similarly, clashes between Spartak Moscow and Athletic Bilbao fans in 2018 received wider attention when one of the police officers involved in controlling the situation collapsed and died.

Former AIK player Jesper Jansson received death threats and had his door painted orange (the color of Firman Boys) with the text Judas, after leaving for rival club Djurgårdens IF in 1996.

"[181] The News of the World's Bob Pennington spoke of the "lunatic fringe of support that fastens onto them (Everton), seeking identification in a multi-national port where roots are hard to establish."

firm) 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".

[196][197] In September 2022, approximately 100 German hooligans in masks armed with machetes and knuckle dusters stormed a pub near Wembley Stadium before an England v Germany UEFA Nations League match.

[204] BBC would report that Right Sector's organization in Kyiv would have its backbone made up of Russian-speaking, Ukrainian football fans sharing nationalist views.

[226] The first murder related to Argentine football occurred on 21 September 1922 in Rosario, during the second half of a home match of Tiro Federal Argentino and Newell's Old Boys for the Copa Estímulo of the local first division.

Seeing this, Boca Juniors fans attempted to tear down the fence and invade the pitch, prompting the police to fire shots to disperse them, killing two spectators: Luis López and Oscar Munitoli (a 9-year-old).

[230] Although violence in Argentine football was already present from the beginning, organized groups called barras bravas began to appear in the 1950s (for example, Independiente, San Lorenzo de Almagro, Lanús, Rosario Central, Vélez Sarsfield, Racing) and 1960s (for example, Belgrano, Boca Juniors, River Plate), and continued to grow in the coming decades.

[235] The journalist Amílcar Romero sets 1958 as the beginning of the current barras bravas (although some had already existed for some years), with the random murder by the police of Mario Alberto Linker (a Boca Juniors supporter -not identified as such- who, circumstantially was watching a match between Vélez Sársfield and River Plate at the José Amalfitani Stadium).

[239] Over 70 Boca Juniors fans died in 1968 when crowds attending a Superclásico in Buenos Aires stampeded after youths threw burning paper onto the terraces and the exit was locked.

[251] In the early morning of 4 July 2010 (the next day of the match between Argentina and Germany for quarter-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup) in Cape Town, South Africa, there was a fight between some members of the barras bravas of Independiente and Boca Juniors.

[269] Football hooliganism in Indonesia dates back to the late 1980s, stemming from the rivalries among fans of Persib Bandung, Persebaya Surabaya, PSMS Medan, PSM Makassar and intra-regional derbies.

[284][285][286] On 24 November 2018, it was reported that around 20 Burmese fans, including girls, waiting for a bus in Kuala Lumpur were attacked by around 30 Malaysians who physically and verbally assaulted the, after the end of a group match between Malaysia and Myanmar at the 2018 AFF Championship.

[287] On 19 November 2019, Malaysian and Indonesian fans clashed and threw smoke bombs, flares and bottles at each other in a FIFA World Cup qualification match between Malaysia and Indonesia, which ended in a 2–0 win for the home side.

On 1 October 2011, FIFA announced that Myanmar would be banned from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers after a home tie against Oman had to be stopped when the crowd pelted the opposition with bottles and rocks.

[293] Another incident involving Thai supporters following Thailand's victory against Vietnam in the 2015 AFF U-19 Youth Championship hosted by Laos began when they set off signal flares, causing the police to fire a warning shot after they entered the stands to quell the unrest and were met with a violent response.

[citation needed] A number of incidents have involved Beitar Jerusalem, including racist abuse against overseas players,[299] anti-Arab chants, use of smoke bombs and fireworks, and rioting.

After a pitch invasion led by La Familia on 13 April 2008, when Beitar were leading Maccabi Herzliya, 1–0, and about to win the Israeli Premier League, the match was abandoned and the points were awarded to their opponents.

[300] On 12 March 2004 a fight between Arab and Kurdish supporters of rival Syrian football clubs at a match in Qamishli, 450 miles (720 km) north east of Damascus, escalated into full-scale riots that left over 30 people dead and hundreds injured.

On 18 March 2012, a derby match was held up for over 26 minutes when a riot broke out, leading to destruction of property and several injuries, after Gor Mahia midfielder Ali Abondo was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle on Leopards' defender Amon Muchiri.

[320] In May 1999, seven people died when rioting football fans threw petrol bombs into a casino, following a match in Port Louis between the Mauritian League champions, Scouts Club, and Fire Brigade SC.

Banners supporting Ratko Mladić, the Serbian military leader charged with war crimes by the International Court of Justice, were displayed, and a laser pointer was seen in use.