Police measures and actions in confronting football hooliganism in some European countries

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of hooliganism in football stadiums in some European countries. In the first part, an overview of the state of football hooliganism in the UK (especially England), Poland, Italy and Serbia is given, and in the second part, the measures, actions and tactics applied by police organizations in these countries in confronting this problem are discussed. Why are these countries taken into consideration in the first place? The United Kingdom – because it used to have big problems with the fans, which have been successfully resolved. Poland – because the police of this country are preparing for the reception of a large number of both fans and hooligans, during the upcoming European Football Championship (EURO 2012), which is jointly organized by Poland and Ukraine. There is also an overview of Italy, which had a big problem with the fans, but which has made the greatest progress in the fight against hooligans in the last three years. Finally, this paper provides an overview of measures and actions taken by the Serbian Ministry of Interior in order to reduce violence at football matches, because, based on recent events, especially the last “eternal derby” between FC “Red Star” and FC “Partizan”, it can be noted that Serbia still has a big problem with the extreme fans.