Football journalist Martin Lipton joined Joe and Kev on Off The Ball this evening to deliver a withering verdict on English football hooliganism, but offered some hope for the future.
Last week’s scenes in Amsterdam, prior to England’s game with the Netherlands, sparked concern that a thuggish element to the support could lead to confrontation in Russia during this summer’s World Cup. Martin gave us an overview of where English fan culture sits in a fraught societal situation, and what this means for the future of the national game.
“Unfortunately there is a group of supporters that disgust or degrade this country on a regular basis. For me, they are the worst excesses of British culture: they are Friday night on-the-beer lunatics, who – if they did that at home - would get locked up by the Old Bill. They think that being out of the country gives them the green light to be even worse.
“I don’t think any of them will go to Russia. They’re cowards. They think they’re hard when there is a hundred of them [...] then they actually realise what hard men are, and they run a million miles.
“The positive for me is that it probably won’t happen in the World Cup because none of them will have the courage to go [to Russia], because they’ll be terrified of actually meeting real hard men. Let’s be honest – the Russians are not particularly nice.”
In terms of Gareth Southgate’s comments about players coming out to condemn racism, Martin believes that it would need to be one of the more senior players to come out and condemn it.
“You’d need to have the stronger characters [condemning behaviour of supporters]. It will be expected of some of the bigger names in the lead up to the World Cup.”
Martin also illuminated the situation with regard to what kind of fans tend to follow England, and the impact that this has on fan culture.
“Look at the flags of those supporters in Amsterdam. Look at the towns they were hailing from. They weren’t flags of Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal. They were from Goole, Irthlingborough and Northampton. England is their club. It is their away day.
“I reckon fans of big clubs are in the minority. They want England to win but are Tottenham, Liverpool or Manchester United fans.”
You can watch the show live at the top of the page from 19:00 on weekdays, or catch us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
