Football: A gentleman's game played by thugs.
Rugby: A thug's game played by gentlemen.
A little harsh on the footballers maybe; but this statement does have some truth to it. I mean rugby is the only sport I've played where sometimes I've wanted to knock seven bells out of the opposing team only to sit and laugh about it together in the bar afterwards. Rugby's one of the only sports I've had the pleasure to watch in a stand surrounded by opposing fans and be able to voice my opinion without losing my teeth. Yet rugby is very physical, very aggressive and very competitive.
Football on the other hand is a game requiring more finesse than rugby. To be a good footballer you don't need to have a physical advantage over your opponent. Look at Lionel Messi: 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 10 and a half stones, but considered by most to be one of the best footballers of his generation. Granted there's physical contact in football, but it's minimal and it's not required to win a game unlike rugby. So how is it that the fans can be so violent? Too often there are stories on the news about violence between the fans at football games. Games have had to be cancelled, played behind closed doors and people have even lost their lives at football games. Why is this?
I remember my first football game well. I arrived at the ground about an hour before kick-off and was greeted by around 100 police officers scattered around the stadium. Some were on horseback, some had shields and batons at the ready, and some were merely patrolling the grounds. It was quite a sight. Despite the high numbers of police, during the game people were trying to climb over the barriers to smack the opposing fans. People were getting arrested and even a little boy got trampled on. It was horrible. It gets worse: after the game (a 0-0 draw from a 'friendly', so no bragging rights were in the equation) the home fans gathered in their hundreds outside the away fan's exit like hunters outside a rabbit's hole, waiting for them to come out and fight. I got caught up in this fight and very nearly got ran over by a horse. Brilliant ¦
Don't get me wrong, not all football fans are like this. But the very small minority that are certainly ruin the atmosphere.
On the contrary, I once took a friend to watch a rugby game. He's an avid football fan and he was genuinely amazed at how both the away and home fans weren't separated like naughty school children. He even asked me whether it was safe to be in the same stand as the away fans. After being assured, he sat through 80 minutes of intense, physical rugby and watched the supporters enjoying some good old banter between themselves. No punches were thrown, nobody was hurt and everyone had a laugh. After the game, we weren't held back in the stands 'for our own safety' until the opposing fans had left; we all left with our dignity - together. And long may it continue: I mean half of the fun of going to watch rugby is having a laugh with the opposing fans and hearing their opinions on their own players and your teams' players. Rugby fans can voice their passion without throwing punches.
But why is this? How can a game requiring such skill and finesse create so many violent fans when a very physical and aggressive game has very tolerant and welcoming fans? Well here are 3 possible reasons:
Attendance: The average premier league attendance for the 2010/2011 season was 35,273 people per game. The average attendance in the Aviva Premiership for the 2010/2011 season was 13,003 people per game, so on average last year there were 22,270 more people attending each top flight football game than people attending each top flight rugby game. Could this massive difference in crowd size be a contributing factor to the violence in football? Maybe football fans sort of egg each other on and adopt a 'they can't arrest all of us' attitude when there's so many of them. Who knows?
Labelling and reputation: one of the first things people think when they hear the words 'football fans' is hooliganism. Whether right or wrong, this is the case and films such as Green Street and The Football Factory don't help the reputation of football. Maybe when football fans turn up to a game and are greeted by police they feel they have to act like hooligans because that's how they're all labelled, which in my opinion is wrong. Not every football fan is a hooligan, and not all fans should be treated like one. On the other hand, Rugby fans are maybe seen to be middle/upper class, and aren't expected to be aggressive.
More teams = more local rivalries: Because football is such a massive sport, there are lots of teams. This creates a lot of local rivalries as there may be some clubs that are only a few miles away from each other, like Manchester United and Manchester City, which are only 5.3 miles away from each other. But because rugby isn't as big a sport as football, there are less teams and therefore less local rivalries. Take Newcastle Falcons for example, their nearest top flight club is Sale Sharks; a mere 154 miles away. This simply has to be a contributing factor to the tension between football fans.
So what can be done to prevent rugby fans becoming like football fans? Well, I must stress, only the minority of football fans can be classed as hooligans. Nevertheless, violence in football is an issue. What needs to be done now is to aim to prevent rugby from following the same path. Rugby is a growing sport and every year it becomes more popular, and with a world cup just over the horizon, it will only grow stronger. Whether it will ever become as popular as football is yet to be seen, but I can only hope the great fans of rugby can keep their tolerance and dignity as the game gets bigger and better.
