by Dirk Gently »
29 Jan 2010 10:26
A match between Doncaster and Forest this season had an unsegregated area and that worked beautifully (despite pundits saying it'd never work because of tensions from the miners' strike) - there are also due to be other unsegregated areas at matches this season - possibly one involving us.
Admittedly that's just some areas of the ground and not the whole crowd, but it's a great start in breaking down the mentality that says "football supporters are all hooligans so let's treat them like that" - a mentality that is clearly alive and well on this thread.
More enlightened and less prescriptive researchers are starting to believe that one of the reasons that football crowds can be so aggressive, abusive and tribal is precisely *because* they are so segregated. It's easy to behave like aggressive, offensive twats when you're behind a line of police and stewards, and it reinforces the feelings of some that the opposing team's supporters are "different". But it's a rare person who'd behave like an aggressive, offensive twats when not in their protected "tribe" - but in amongst the other people at the game, regardless of which team they support.
I agree that there's a long way to go, and some people will never respond to this, but it's really quite ludicrous that at so many matches you go to the local pub, have a drink with the opposing supporters, and then you're herded into different parts of the ground because of an assumption that because you have a football shirt or scarf on you want to kick the sh*t out of those same people you've just been drinking with.