A better home visit and the return of hooliganism???

Coming back this weekend was a very pleasurable experience this time round, the football gods deemed that I would get all that I needed; flight on time, fine weather, good beer and three points. You can read the other blogs for a report on the Everton game but it was rather strange to see the return of long lost football colleague at the weekend.

During the second half trouble seemed to break out within the Everton away end and sitting where I do it was difficult to fully asses the actual problems or spark that set it all off. listening to the podcast of the Saturday 6-0-6 show one Arsenal fan described other Arsenal fans (in the upper tier) spitting down on the Everton fans, certain Everton fans seemingly intent on getting to Arsenal fans nearby and general idiots throwing coins at each other. Later that evening it transpired that a linesman at Villa Park had been hit by a coin that was thrown by Villa fans (but intended for Portsmouth manager, Harry Redknapp) and similarly there was an incident with Tottenham fans at their game yesterday.

Now seeing as I started to go to football regularly at the end of the 70s this is all quite small beer but it does show that despite all the efforts to remove hooliganism you can never quite get rid of all the morons that follow the game. What's changed is that they've re-emerged into the open, so to speak. The threat of banning or CCTV has either diminished or is ignored (ask Mike Ashley, lager drinker extraordinaire) and the so called deterrent to throwing a coin or a punch is no longer in play. Have clubs become complacent, certainly at Arsenal the difference in this incident (compared to the troubles in the 80s) was that the front-line now is held more by stewards than by Police. Maybe, as a result, the threat is less worrying.

I'm not suggesting we're going back to the old days of mass violence but that the cultural violence that you can see in most towns and pubs in the UK on a Friday night is making a return to the football grounds around the country. Football never really got rid of the violent idiots as such but it was always more difficult for it to be organised in all seater stadia with 1000s of cameras. It just seems that the new order is being tested and we'll see whether any fans are banned as a result of the coin throwing or minor fracas that took place at the weekend.