The same PRs have dealt primarily with the problems of racism and hooliganism. They have, of course, deplored it. They've sought viable advice from academics and they have got it: sensibly deployed police, CCTV, restrictions on alcohol consumption, the greater involvement of women, and so on. But the seeds of these problems are someone else's problem. Football authorities just want them off the premises. Football hooligans need to be put somewhere where they can't interfere with lucrative commercial activities. This defines the "football hooligan". He's a nuisance at the world's favourite game. He doesn't necessarily believe things that aren't believed in a thousand boardrooms, dressing rooms or police stations, but he's tactless and expendable. If he did what he does on the streets of Oldham or Burnley, he wouldn't provoke the national breastbeating that he did this week.
