Soccer Riots

History of soccer recalls many accidents and disasters. The atmosphere at the football matches is more than often very heated, resembling a battlefield. Soccer fans of different groups watch with close attention the game of their favorite team, and often curse the opponents, which can sometimes lead to fights of different sport fans. Such events happened before and can happen again in situations, where watchers loose control in overcrowded places. The control over crowd at the stadiums is often too difficult: at the games of famous teams of the Premier League the stadiums are overcrowded.

Big stadiums around the world may contain an enormous number of people: for instance, the capacity of Wembley Stadium is 90,000 people, and of Old Trafford Stadium – 76,000. The capacity of Luzhniki Stadium in Russia is nearly 85,000 people, and of Stadio Olimpico in Rome- 82,000. This huge number of people is difficult to organize and control; crowd control problems often led to fights and riots.

Soccer news often reports on Hooliganism by football supporters often leads to disasters. Fights between supporters of rival teams sometimes take place before or after football matches, but they also may occur at pre-arranged locations in order to avoid police, and not necessarily at the stadiums. Sometimes human crushes occur, in which people might be crushed to death. Such an unfortunate event has happened in Hillsborough on April 15, 1989, causing the death of 96 people. The unprecedented influx of thousands of fans through a narrow tunnel leading to the stadium has caused a major crush, where people were being pressed up against the fencing by the weight of the crowd behind them. The overcrowding of people caused the fatal crash.

In a heated atmosphere of a football match, many people may loose control over their feelings and behavior. Many accidents and acts of hooliganism occur in overcrowded places, such as stadiums. In such cases, an intense crowd control is needed in order to maintain the peace and prevent disasters. Sometimes these events are recorded and later on published in Soccer TV clips. Accidents and disasters, which occur on stadiums, are remembered as unnecessary deaths, which could have been avoided. Overcrowded stadiums can easily lead to disasters.