welcome back to the 1980s

Welcome back to the1980’s

Like most Tottenham fans I was disgusted at the thuggery inflicted upon our supporters in Rome last Thursday night!

My thoughts and prayers go out to Ashley Mills, Dave Lesley, Stephen Tierney and Christopher Allen their family and friends and anyone else affected by what happened to them in the Drunken Ship, on the eve of our Europa league match against Lazio.

Here’s hoping you make a swift and full recovery!

It seems that travelling outside of the UK to watch a football match remains as dangerous as ever!

In 1985 English teams were banned from playing in European competition due to the Heysel stadium disaster. The ban continued for some 5 years.

However the Heysel disaster was only one of a long list of problems caused by English hooligans around Europe during the 1970s and 80s.

To be fair there was always someone prepared to have a tear up with the English it was not all one sided, but because of our brazenness inevitably we took the bulk of the blame.

English football has come a long way from those days, on the whole a trip to see your favourite team can and is for a lot of people a family day out. Wives, girlfriends, sons and daughters all join in the experience, safe in the knowledge that they will be going home safe at the end of the day.

Long gone are the days of young men mob handed outside the pub looking for the other teams top boys to show their face shouting “lets ave it”!

However there is an element of the 80s that has created a sub culture in this country and to a more extreme level all around Europe.

You will still see the clothes of the 80s at most football grounds in England especially around us middle aged men who were part of the culture in the 1980s.

I include myself in this as wearing the right clobber to go to football is still a part of the experience for me, (call it nostalgia.)

Danny Dyer has made a good living reminiscing with old Skool hooligans for his TV show. Those guys have also made a good few quid from books interviews and even films. There are also a fair few websites and clothing lines dedicated to it. It seems there is still glamour around the subject.

Going away to places like Italy Germany Serbia and Turkey though is almost like going back in time. The clothing the organisation, the attitudes are all based on the English hooligans of the 80s!

Danny Dyer’s programme visits hooligans abroad and their overwhelming story is their admiration for our hooligan culture.

So if these guys in these countries base their plans, attitudes and processes on our past, perhaps it is time for the powers to be to look at what they did in the 80s to change us, and use the same powers to change them?

Perhaps its time to ban these clubs, these countries these fans!

The authorities cannot continue to allow these places to work to a different set of rules to those used everywhere else.

Football supporters should be able to go to a match in any country and feel as welcome and safe as the other supporters feel when coming to White Hart lane?