Proactive approach of police in combat against football hooliganism

Abstract

Hooliganism of certain fans at football matches has been decadesold problem faced by many countries of the world. Our country is not an exception. Moreover, this kind of threat to security in our country shows the tendency of escalation. It is evident from our experience that solely repressive model for solving the football hooliganism does not provide satisfactory results. Analyzing the security methods of major football competitions held in many Western European countries, it can be concluded that the proactive police operations in confronting hooliganism at football matches are much more efficient and provide more acceptable results. The paper analyzes the experience of the police organizations of Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Germany acquired during the security of the European and the World Championship from the aspect of proactive police activity and generalization of experience on the ways of information collecting, processing and distribution on football hooliganism. In addition to this, the paper deals with the international police cooperation in order to share the intelligence databases on hooligans, primarily in the European Union; and it likewise provides guidelines on to which way our country’s efforts should be directed in combat against hooliganism at football matches.