Growing up in a Latin American culture where soccer is a phenomenon, I am not unaware of the problems that are caused when violence and soccer meet. Every year, thousands of soccer fans enjoy going to their soccer team games. However, it seems that soccer hooliganism is a disease that is invading the sport very often lately, despite all the attempts that have been conducted to stop it. Nowadays, going to a game is not as easy as it was decades ago, now people have to look around and check if their wallets are still in their pocket. Even though, there are more and more studies on the subject, more security at stadiums and more laws to punish have been created; there is still violence in sports. Soccer makes people feel exited and passionate for it, and it also causes rivalry among society, and sometimes it drives to violence. Unfortunately, it has not always been the case where the only loss that soccer faced were lost games, or the only thing kicked was the soccer ball. In order to avoid riots and disorders at these events, I believe that it should be handled throughout building tolerance in society, and becoming stadiums in a safer place to watch and enjoy this sport. Some people think that sports promote mental health, peace of mind; they can alleviate natural hostilities like aggression and competitiveness, reduce crime and violence. And that is how sports are supposed to be, a joyful and healthy activity to watch and play.
There are different ways in which this violence occurs, either by hooligans, police, or others. However, it was not until the 1960s that soccer hooliganism was recognized as a significant contemporary social problem in Britain. This problem dates back almost 50 years ago, and it is strongly present not only in Britain, but also on today’s soccer games in several countries. In addition, in the 1960’s, the permissiveness of the society lead the younger people to do what they wanted to do, including creating subcultures between them. Those subcultures turned out meeting at the soccer stadiums, which later were recognized as hooligans (Gibbons, Dixon, and Braye).
To know in detail what is violence in soccer lets decomposed into two parts. Violence is the kind of human interaction that is manifested in situations that cause, or threaten to do, serious injury or some kind of physical or psychological damage to an individual or a community. It is a complex concept that supports various shades depending on the point of view from which is being considered. On the other hand, soccer is one of the great phenomena of humanity: 264 million people play soccer somewhat; there are 1.7 million soccer teams and 300,000 clubs around the world, and the World Cup is one of the events television with more global audience. This sport is a phenomenon of such magnitude that the FIFA currently has more national associations affiliated (209 countries) that the United Nations Organization (193 members). Therefore, when they are combined...
