Anatomy of a thug

Whether it's disgracing the name of English football at Euro 2000 or causing mayhem in city centres up and down the country every weekend, the Government has firmly fixed the spotlight on the British thug.

And now new research, pioneered in Oxford, paints a vivid picture of the persona of the hooligan.

Researchers at Oxford's Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) have been trying to understand what makes a football hooligan tick. Their research programme first started in the 1970s when the spectre of football violence, as we know it today, reared its ugly head. Then, traditional rivalries between clubs such as Celtic and Rangers and Liverpool and Manchester United bubbled over into full-scale riots. Despite being sporadic and disorganised the riots left large scars on the face of the sporting world.

During the 1980s and 1990s however the violence took on a new form.

Though the customary club rivalry still existed, the focal point for the violence had shifted onto an international level.

Now England seems unable to participate in any international tournament without her fans bringing shame on themselves and their country.

The SIRC research team, led by centre's co-director Dr Peter Marsh, has been trying to draw up a profile of a typical hooligan. The information the team has gathered could well help the already over-stretched police forces in their crack down on football hooligans.

Some commentators have attempted to portray the English thugs at Euro 2000 as well organised professional young men who hold down well-paid jobs and enjoy time off work to orchestrate their violence and demonstrate their own brand of nationalism.

But the SIRC research reveals a very different picture from the idea of the sophisticated, financially sound, smartly-dressed British hooligan.

Dr Marsh, co-director of the SIRC, based in St Clement's Street, says the average football hooligan is looking for status by being macho and tough for the simple reason that they cannot get recognition for anything else they do. He says many are white, working class men who find that by turning to violent outbursts they can get attention.

And while many people attain satisfaction and status through jobs, education or good housing, for hooligans it is physical toughness that counts.

He says: "The hooligans are people who are not achieving great status through work or their careers.

"They are young, working class men who do not have channels for achievement elsewhere. They have unfulfilling lives so they become jack-the-lad on the terraces. Getting their picture in the paper or on TV gets them some kind of recognition and plenty of attention." But it is not just the need to be noticed that spurs them on.

Football encourages the 'pack' mentality in a way that no other sport does.

It is a serious business and suggesting that it is little more than a game is merely facile.

"There is a massive emotional risk involved in football matches. People become very passionately involved and when they go along to a football match they do not know if they will leave the ground completely ecstatic or with a sense of dejection.

"Going to a match is a very bonding experience. One of the reasons many supporters prefer to go to a match rather than watch it on TV is because of the bonding that takes place on the terraces.

"That sense of belonging is fundamental to understanding the mentality of football supporters. "The more unsavoury side of that however, is the jingoism, or racism, that bubbles over when the fans go abroad," Dr Marsh says.

He condemns the tabloid newspapers for encouraging jingoism by using perjorative terms such as 'the Huns' and comparing an England v Germany football match to the Second World War almost inciting racism.

The fans' faith in their team is absolute and so, inevitably, they find it difficult to accept when their team loses.

They cannot accept that their team has failed on the pitch and so they make sure they clinch victory off the pitch by fighting for supremacy against rival supporters.