The Return of Something Nasty

      This morning I read an article on the BBC news website that Senior police are warning over the possible emergence of a new generation of football hooligans after incidents involving young people almost trebled.  This is not a good sign English football has had is bad patched in the past and football hooliganism was one of the worst.  In May 1985 the Heysel Stadium disaster occurred and England football teams where banned from European football.  After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 fans died, football hooliganism slowly dissipated, the firms started to disappear.  But recently a new generation of hooligans has come to the fore front but even though overall levels of hooliganism remain low but the trend has sparked concern.

       I am a Manchester United and England fan but I honest didn't know much detail when it came to the football hooliganism past of my countries football.  I knew the basics, I knew about the Hillsborough disaster, I was all over the telly with 20 years after programs and I think i know as much as most about it know.  I knew the fact that most top level sides had hooligan gangs called 'firms'.  I knew the Manchester United hooliganism history, in 1973 when United got relegated to the second division they went on a rampage causing mayhem at grounds up and down the country.

       But I honestly didn't know much about the Heysel Stadium disaster, I know that England teams where band from European football for a few years.  The Heysel Stadium disaster occurred on 29 May 1985 when a masonry wall failed then collapsed under the pressure of escaping fans in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, as a result of rioting before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool 39 people died, 32 of them Juventus fans, and 600 were injured.

      The aftermath of this incident was a ban from European football.  The ban from European competition had mixed effects on the game in England.  In club football, before the 5-year ban English clubs had been dominant in European competition with 6 European Cup victories, 1977–1982, and again in 1984.  Even after the ban was lifted in 1990, English teams had to wait five seasons before earning back all of the European places which they had held before 1985. This affected eight teams, who missed qualification for the UEFA Cup until and including the 1994–95 tournament.

       In total of the 10 years of reduced European 22 English sides didn't get to enter European tournaments they had earned the right to enter.  Most of the teams who missed out on European football have managed to get into European football after the ban but some teams like Luton, Oxford, Coventry and Queens Park Rangers.