Inside U. K. The hooligans are coming! By Richard Payne	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
フーリガンがやってくる！ いよいよワールドカップ開催直前。サッカー発祥の地イギリスでは、イングランドチームが大会でどこまで勝ち進めるか期待が高まっていますが、日本では、サッカー会場で暴れたり騒ぎを起こすフーリガンの来日が心配されています。フーリガンとはどんな人々で、イギリスではどんな対策が取られているのでしょうか？

When it comes to football, the English still talk fondly about winning the World Cup in 1966. That probably tells you how little success we have had internationally since then. Having qualified for this year's World Cup, hopes are once again high that more than 30 years of waiting to win the most important trophy in football are finally about to end.

Here, thoughts are on England's chances of making it into the second round of matches. But it comes as no surprise to learn that, sadly, the Japanese people are concerned by foreigners that will make the long trip to watch their country play.

We have become all too used to hearing and reading stories of how a few mindless idiots, who call themselves football fans, have blackened the name of the real followers of the game by causing trouble in foreign countries.

They are nearly always gangs of men, aged between their late teens and their late 40s. They claim to be fiercely patriotic, so they wrap the Union Jack or St. George Cross flag over their shoulders or around their waist. The typical image of a football hooligan here is a large and loud skinhead who relishes a fight.

But don't think they're just disorganized gangs aimlessly roaming the streets. Some are very organized with leaders who coordinate fights with rival gangs. Some will go to a city not to watch the football but just to fight. They meet in pubs and clubs and go under names like "The Firm."

Many come from a poor background and feel the need to defend themselves against what they believe is a system that's trying to crush them. Others have good jobs to pay for their many trips abroad. But, whatever their background, they have the same intention: to cause as much trouble as possible.

I have, unfortunately, witnessed hooliganism firsthand. In my previous job as a football reporter, I was sent to cover the 1998 World Cup in France, and although the experience was amazing and the people warm and hospitable, a few thugs spoiled it.

I was in the city of Marseilles in southern France when fighting broke out between the English fans and the locals. Naturally, the English got a very bad reputation after that and I think everyone was pleased when England was knocked out of the game and sent home. All honorable English fans were disgusted by those who had brought shame to their country.

As well as this, some of you may have read of trouble only last month in London when fans of Millwall went on a rampage and fought with police after their side lost an important game. Some 900 thugs fought with the police, throwing everything from pieces of concrete and bricks to even fireworks. Forty-five officers were injured, some with broken arms. Everyone has criticized the hooligans, including Millwall, who may be in trouble with the football authorities for failing to control their fans.

But, despite these events, let me, in my own small way, try to reassure you about the English abroad. First, the British police and government have worked very hard to make sure only true fans will travel. Just to qualify for a ticket, the fans have to belong to the official club for supporters of England. The more they have traveled with England, the greater their chance of getting a prized ticket. More importantly, those who have a criminal record have not been allowed to leave the country.

Also, a group from the Football Supporters' Association (FSA) has been sent to Sapporo to build good relations between England's fans and the Japanese people. Sapporo is where England will play Argentina — a match that does not have the happiest of histories.

In 1986, the Argentine striker Diego Maradona scored a goal, which everyone but the officials knew had been punched in with his fist. Only now has he admitted he cheated. In 1998, England's David Beckham was sent off after a foul on an Argentine player, who pretended the foul was worse than it really was. England lost the game and was out of the World Cup.

The address to the Japanese people was the idea of the British Embassy in Tokyo, who was concerned about media coverage which gave the impression every football fan was a hooligan intent on trouble.

Kevin Miles, an FSA international coordinator who admits to looking like a typical English thug — a big and fat skinhead wearing a football shirt of the national team, spoke to locals likely to come into contact with England's fans. He recently wrote in The Sunday Telegraph: "My message that it is possible, even commonplace, to be big, fat and ugly, while being friendly and entirely well-disposed toward hosts and fans of other countries came as a surprise to many (in Japan), but was nonetheless welcome. "

The messages we are getting back in Britain is that the Japanese police will not tolerate any trouble from visiting fans. Quite rightly, too, because any trouble caused by the hooligans will be condemned in this country as much as it is in Japan.

Shukan ST: May 24, 2002

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