Nowadays, sport is a very large part of the media. Not only are we interested in the actual game, but as a celebrity saturated culture we are also fascinated by the lifestyles and relationships of the players. This is especially the case with footballers. They earn an incredible wage for doing a job that they enjoy and appear to live an amazing lifestyle. However, football is also a very passionate game which can lead to negative connotations. The players themselves are passionate about the game and this can lead to violence and malicious tackles on the pitch and bust-ups off the pitch. Generally, player violence isnt too serious and can be controlled by the referee, but the fan violence isnt so easily dealt with.
It is true that plenty of sports have passionate fans, but why are football fans so much more violent? Perhaps it is because football has the ability to change a normally calm fan into an angry, abusive person if it goes against their favour, but how? It brings to the surface emotions that arent usually experienced in everyday life. Emotions such as anger, bitterness, greed, elation, relief and extreme pride are all experienced in a short 90 minute period. During this period, all conventional logic goes out of the window and at that moment nothing else matters. It is a very intense experience that has the ability to make a person revert to tribalistic or even primal behaviours.
Unsurprisingly then, there is a direct link between football and violence. Whilst fan support and pride in your team may sound harmless, in reality there is potential for it to cross over into the realm of football violence. When emotion and passion runs so close to the surface, sometimes the line between a passion for sport and violent behaviour can become blurred. Football fans devote a lot of time towards supporting their chosen team and will often sacrifice other areas of their lives in order to show their commitment; therefore they will naturally be full of emotion when watching a game.
In some extreme cases, incidents of group football violence have crossed over into football hooliganism. In England football hooliganism has been a major issue since the 1960s and violence at football is still very much an issue today. The term was created by the media and refers to deliberate and intentional violence involving organised gangs (firms) who are associated with certain football clubs and are at war with other firms from rival clubs.
Of course this is a very extreme example of sport obsession going wrong, and there are thousands of devoted fans who do not take part in any violent behaviour and consequently are not any less passionate about their team. Some passionate fans show their commitment to their team by devoting their time to collecting signed memorabilia or collecting programmes from all the games they have been to. If you have a passionate fan in your life or if you are a passionate fan then why not purchase a piece of signed memorabilia to add to the collection? If you are looking for 100% genuine pieces of memorabilia then why not visit Genuine Memorabilia and browse through the extensive catalogue of exciting collectors pieces.
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