Hooligans: The Psychology of Soccer Hooligans

By definition, hooligans (ultras, barrabravas, etc.) are people who show aggressive behavior in football events. During the last decades, social psychologists and sociologists have paid attention to this phenomenon that had its peak in the 80s in Europe, but which today continues in the the center of controversy due to frequent altercations, such as those that occurred only a few weeks ago between radical fans of the Deportivo de la Coruña and from Atlético de Madrid.

On this occasion, a person lost his life who was thrown into the river after a massive fight. These violent encounters between groups of hooligans have resulted in numerous deaths and tragedies throughout the history of soccer. One of the most notorious occurred in 1985 at the stadium of Heysel (Brussels) where 39 people died while the final of the European Cup between Liverpool and the Juventus. Since 2004, the level of violence carried out by these groups seems to have decreased somewhat, but it has not completely disappeared.

Hooligans: group psychology and violence by consensus

Police units specialized in these issues and collaboration between international security forces have made it difficult for these violent groups to organize. However, street confrontations after matches are still frequent.

Fan violence has also affected other sports, but “hooliganism” has traditionally been associated with soccer as it is the sport with the most followers in the world. Angel Gomez, Professor of Psychology at UNED, affirms that "In Spain, between 1975 and 1985 there were 6,011 violent acts related to sports, 90% of which were directly related to football".

The term "hooligan" was born in England in the 60s and seems to come from an 1899 song inspired by Patrick O'Hoolinhan, an Irish doorman (security) and thief who lived in London. His family and he were famous for their frequent fights. According to reports from the London Metropolitan Police, O'Hoolinhan was the leader of a youth gang. The young men who belonged to his band were baptized as “hooleys” (in Irish it means wild).

After its beginnings in England, the rise of the hooliganism It is produced in the 80s due to the public notoriety that hooligans achieved in different European countries, amen of its high color in the animation of sporting events and the violence that they generated inside and outside the stadiums. Depending on the group and the country of residence, there seem to be certain differences between these groups. For example, in Spain and Italy they usually share the colors of the club with the Politic ideology (fascism or radicalism of the left). However, in England, many groups are apolitical.

It should be noted that political ideology is only in the sample of symbols, since these groups do not seek social change, it is a symbolic ideology that is part of its component playful. Another example of the differences between these groups of radicals are the "zulus". The "hooligan firm" associated with the team of Birmingham City, is one of the most heterogeneous groups of English ultras. A multitude of different ethnic groups coexist among its members, something that is not usual among hooligans.

Hooligans and group behavior

These groups offer their members the possibility of accessing a role: the one of ultras or hooligans. The young hooligan finds in the group an identity already predisposed with a set of norms, values, feelings, beliefs, reasons and models of action. Through a process of “culturalization” and assimilation of the role, the member of a group makes the images and rules of conduct through which it can be confirmed by others and approved by the group.

It may seem that their actions are a spontaneous manifestation of exaltation of the colors of the team but are, in reality, the result of a meticulous organization and many hours of work. Ultra groups are organizations. As such they are financed in different ways (sale of merchandising, magazines, etc.) and require an organizational work that the leader and the ultras with responsibilities carry out during the week.

The violence of hooligans and its playful component

One of the characteristics of the behavior of hooligans that has attracted the most attention of sociologists and social psychologists is the playful violence used by these groups. The truth is that football is transformed into a set of rituals, songs, symbols and expressions that define the radical fan. In the stadium, emotion moves away from rationality, soccer is a complex ritual that includes two parallel worlds: one on the field and one in the stands. When the fans gather to go to the stadium, they do so en masse. A series of intragroup and intergroup processes are then initiated.

The actors produce behaviors about their identity or passion for the team, there are conflicts with the hooligans of the team rival, self-assertion (that of the group) is sought and a self-image is constructed that is recognizable denigrates. Fans perceive bad intention in all actions of their opponents (or rival fans), even when it does not exist. They react with hatred and anger because they consider themselves innocent victims of the unjust referee or the intimidating police.

Violence, identity and group reinforcement

This violence is aimed at maintaining the internal cohesion of the group itself.or. Hooligans function as closed social systems and have to displace aggressiveness towards other social groups. The mechanisms involved in this type of tribal violence have been analyzed by the Social Identity Theory by Tajfel and Turner. It is a violence that is born from the group and whose purpose is group reinforcement. The presence of another group is the trigger for a self-regulation mechanism that tries to reduce internal differences by reinforcing the internal norm of uniformity. This is apparently gratuitous violence, which has no other objective than to humiliate the opponent in order to proclaim the superiority of the group itself.

Marsh, Rosser and Harré in "The rules of Disorder" (1978) call this phenomenon "ritualized aggressiveness." For these authors, the apparently disorderly clashes between fans are actually orderly confrontations and not exclusively actual violence. María Teresa Adán Revilla, researcher at the University of Salamanca and an expert on violence in football states:

“Two rival groups of fans exchange insults until, for each side, an individual advances, facing each other in the open space that remains between the two sides. There, new insults are exchanged and threatening gestures are made, until one of them loses ground and withdraws. The result of a successful ‘fight’ is the withdrawal of the enemy and the increase in the reputation of the protagonist of the side that has forced the other to retreat ".

Ritualized aggressiveness is symbolic because it involves the deployment of weapons, but not their use. It's about humiliating and entrenching your opponents' submission, but not doing them physical harm. However, the ritual can be interrupted to give way to actual violence. This happens when a member of one of the groups accidentally violates the unspoken rules of the ritual or when an external factor intervenes, such as the police.

Most of the “aggressions” carried out by the hooligans, therefore, do not have an ideological origin, but rather a playful one. Its purpose is to create a climate of fun and party, break the monotony of life and access intense emotions.

Hooliganism and hooligans

The hooligan is a person who amuses himself loudly, raises or causes scandals in public places and, in general, acts with disregard for others. What characterizes the hooligan and, therefore, differentiates him from the typical criminal who acts for utilitarian motives, is the use of violence with a playful purpose. Elias and Dunning, in their article “Sport and leisure in the process of civilization” (1992) believe that thug behavior is best understood as a quest for excitement in an unexciting society. The social repression of emotions would constitute an essential part of the civilization process.

Playful emotion has increased in importance in recent decades as a compensation for the rigid social control of emotional expressions. Emotional manifestations are allowed in sports, shows, parties and, in general, in leisure-time events. A society has been created that has imposed the emotional brake and that, in the words of Elias and Dunning, have built communities capable of satisfying all material needs, stable and safe. Communities where daily work tends to be repetitive and where everything tries to be planned, so that the stimulating appearance of the new and surprising is unlikely ”.

Sociologist Pilz points out that this is a A conducive context for compensatory phenomena to emerge, such as a love of extreme sports, the exciting character that presents a good part of the current cinematographic production (thrillers, films of violence, sex and catastrophes), the sensationalist bias of the media, the success of gossip magazines or the rise of morbid reality television shows.

The psychologist John kerr, tries to explain the hooligan phenomenon through the Apter's Inversion Theory(1982, 1989) that focuses his interest in the phenomenological analysis of human motivations and emotions. This theory focuses on three concepts: metamotivational states, hedonic tone, and protective frames.

Hooligan motivations

The statesmetamotivationalThey are those basic mental states of a transitory nature that underlie a specific motivation. There are four pairs of metamotivational states, telic / paratelic, negativism / conformity, dominance / understanding, autolic / alloic, which coexist separately within a bistable system, such as the switch from on to off in an appliance, the on and the off.

In the telic state, we tend to act in a serious and planned way, while in the paratelic state, which is more common in the hooligan, we tend to behave spontaneously and playfully, being oriented towards the Present. Another metamotivational state that predominates in the hooligan is that of negativism, which is defined as resistance or rebellion against established norms. At any given time, the influence of various factors, such as the incidence of an unexpected event, can induce us to make an investment, and move from one state to another.

The concept of hedonic tone refers to the degree to which a person feels that he is aroused at a given moment. The greater or lesser level of arousal that a person experiences can arouse very different emotions depending on the metamotivational state in which they are. In the paratelic state, a high arousal produces arousal that leads to pleasant feelings (i.e., high hedonic tone) while a low arousal generates boredom and unpleasant feelings (hedonic tone under). In the telic state, emotional reactions change: high arousal causes anxiety and displeasure, low arousal produces relaxation and pleasant feelings.

In studies that use the Telic Dominance Scale, such as that of Murgatroyd (1978), which measures the metamotivational state that predominates in an individual, it has been proven that people with paratellar dominance are more likely to participate in situations risky. According to Kerr, there is empirical evidence that links the behavior of the offender and the hooligan to a paratellar orientation.

Finally, the concept of protective framework refers to the fact that negative emotions(anxiety, the go to or the afraid) can be positively interpreted and experienced as pleasant if they occur in the paratelic state. This seems to explain why some people enjoy a horror movie while sitting down. in an armchair in which they feel safe or are capable of throwing themselves up for being well equipped.