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ABSTRACT
This essay follows up on an article published in Soccer & Society prior to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. There it was argued that this edition of the World Cup served as particularly interesting for the academic field focussed on sport-mega events (SMEs) and ‘security’, because of its uniquely securitized climate. Written immediately after the 2018 World Cup, the present essay reflects upon the event’s ‘security’ and mega-event security more broadly. It revisits some ‘security-related’ episodes. Then, special attention will be given the media discourse vis-à-vis ‘hooliganism’. The essay argues that the media discourse took an unorthodox ‘turn’ with regard to English ‘hooligans’, who, compared to past events, were portrayed as being ‘in risk’ – rather than being the group generating ‘the risk’ of football-related violence and public disorder.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Ludvigsen, ‘Sport Mega-Events and Security’.
2. Ibid.
3. Giulianotti and Klauser, ‘Security Governance’.
4. Consult for example Giulianotti and Klauser, ‘Security governance’; Yu et al., ‘Governing Security’; and Armstrong et al., Policing the 2012 London Olympics.
5. Roche, ‘Mega-Events, Time and Modernity’.
6. Ibid.
7. Giulianotti and Klauser, ‘Security Governance’.
8. Tsoukala, ‘Asymmetric Power Relations’, 276.
9. Coaffee and Murakami-Wood, ‘Security is Coming Home’.
10. Müller, ‘How Mega-Events Capture their Hosts’.
11. BBC, ‘World Cup 2018: Russia promises “unprecedented” security’.
12. Atkinson and Young, ‘Shadowed by the Corpse of War’.
13. Inter alia Poulton, ‘English media representation of Football related disorder’; Stott and Reicher ‘How Conflict Escalates’; and Pearson and Stott, Football ‘Hooliganism’.
14. Klauser, Surveillance and Space.
15. Horne and Manzenreiter, ‘An Introduction to the Sociology of Sports Mega-Events’, 19.
16. Spaaij, ‘Terrorism and Security at the Olympics’.
17. Armstrong et al., Policing the 2012 London Olympics.
18. Samatas, ‘Security and Surveillance’; and Sugden, ‘Watched by the Olympics’.
19. Whelan, ‘Surveillance, Security and Sports Mega Events’; Boyle, ‘Knowledge networks’; and Toohey et al., ‘The FIFA World Cup 2002’.
20. Horne, ‘The four “knowns” of sport mega events’.
21. Wong and Chadwick, ‘Risk and (in)security’, 593.
22. Fussey et al., ‘Critical Reflections on Securing the Olympics’. 235.
23. This description – or tag – was for instance used ahead of the operations associated Beijing’s Olympics in 2008 (see Yu et al., ‘Governing Security’), whilst it certainly was used ahead of London 2012. Meanwhile, Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria was described as the biggest military deployment in the former country since the Second World War (see Klauser, Surveillance and Space, 99).
24. Klauser, Surveillance and Space, 71.
25. Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity.
26. Furedi, Culture of Fear Revisited.
27. Boyle and Haggerty, ‘Spectacular Security’.
28. Coaffee and Murakami-Wood, ‘Security is Coming Home’, 507.
29. Furedi, Culture of Fear Revisited, 1, 11.
30. Lyon and Murakami-Wood, ‘Security, Surveillance, and Sociological Analysis’.
31. Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity, 1.
32. Bennett and Haggerty, ‘Introduction’.
33. Jennings, Olympic Risks, 18–19.
34. Booth, Critical Security Studies and World Politics, 21.
35. Wirtz, ‘Indications and Warning’.
36. Reuters, ‘Thunderstorm briefly Floods World Cup Host City’.
37. Metro, ‘England Fan Beaten’.
38. BBC, ‘Moscow crash taxi driver “feared crowd lynching”’.
39. BBC, ‘World Cup 2018: FA condemns England fans’ anti-Semitic chants’. Reportedly, one man was issued a five year FBO for this incident. See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44590365.
40. The Daily Mail, ‘Moment Russian police arrest two England Fans on Moscow Metro after “one of them hit a Colombia Supporter” following Three Lions Victory’.
41. The Guardian, ‘World Cup 2018: One Person Killed in Sochi after car Collides with Pedestrians’.
42. The Independent, ‘World Cup Final 2018 Pitch Invasion’.
43. Giulianotti and Klauser, ‘Security governance’; Jennings and Lodge,‘Governing Mega-Events’.
44. Toohey et al., ‘The FIFA World Cup 2002’.
45. Wong and Chadwick, ‘Risk and (in)security’.
46. Jennings, ‘Governing Mega-Events’.
47. Stott and Pearson, Football ‘Hooliganism’.
48. Ibid., 15.
49. Rookwood and Pearson, ‘The Hoolifan’, 151.
50. Ibid.
51. Tsoukala, Football hooliganism in Europe, 86.
52. Stott and Pearson, Football ‘Hooliganism’. 15.
53. Tsoukala, Football hooliganism in Europe, 133.
54. Stott and Pearson, Football ‘Hooliganism’.
55. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’.
56. Frosdick and Marsh, Football Hooliganism.
57. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’, 31.
58. Atkinson and Young, ‘Shadowed by the Corpse of War’, 290.
59. See i.e. Stott and Reicher, ‘How Conflict Escalates’, Poulton, ‘Fantasy Football Hooliganism’; ‘Tears, Tanrum and Tattoos’; and English Media Representation’.
60. Poulton, ‘New fans, New Flag, New England?
61. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’; and Weed, ‘Ing-ger-land’.
62. Stott and Pearson, Football ‘Hooliganism’; Stott, ‘Police Expectations and the Control of English Soccer Fans’; Pearson and Sale, ‘On the Lash’; and Pearson, An ethnography of English Football Fans.
63. Crabbe, ‘The Public Gets what the Public Wants’, 419.
64. See link for the interview: https://twitter.com/KeeleUniversity/status/1006467190256799744 [Accessed June 2018].
65. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’.
66. Ludvigsen ‘Sport Mega-Events and Security’.
67. Ibid.
68. The Daily Mail, ‘If you thought France was Bad’.
69. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’; and Frosdick and Marsh, Football Hooliganism.
70. Atkinson and Young, ‘Shadowed by the Corpse of War’ 290.
71. Express, ‘World Cup 2018 BLOODBATH’.
72. Ibid.
73. Metro, ‘Hooligans Warn’.
74. Atkinson and Young, ‘Shadowed by the Corpse of War’, 303.
75. The Independent, ‘Don’t Take England Flags to Russia’.
76. The Daily Mail, ‘England WAGs to be provided Secret World Cup Security’.
77. Steen, ‘Sensationalist United’.
78. Crabbe, ‘The Public gets what the Public Wants’, 420.
79. Poulton, ‘New Fans, New Flag, New England?’, 23.
80. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’; and Stott and Pearson, Football ‘Hooliganism’.
81. BBC, ‘World Cup 2018: England “thugs” stopped from going to Russia’.
82. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’, 41.
83. The Guardian, ‘England Fans enjoy stay in Volgograd with no repeat of Marseille Violence’.
84. Poulton, ‘New fans, New Flag, New England?’.
85. The Daily Express, ‘It’s too DANGEROUS’.
86. Giulianotti, ‘Sport Mega-Events, urban Football Carnivals and securitised commodification’.
87. Giulianotti and Klauser, ‘Security Governance’.
88. e.g. Armstrong et al. Calling the Shots; Armstrong et al., Policing the 2012 London Olympics; Sugden, ‘Watched by the Olympics’; and Fussey et al. ‘Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City’.
89. Millward, ‘World Cup 2022’.
90. Taylor and Toohey, ‘The Security Agencies’ Perspective’.
91. Klauser, Surveillance and Space.
92. Giulianott and Robertson, ‘Mapping the Global Football Field’.
93. The Independent, ‘World Cup 2018: MPs fear “Heightened Risks” for LGBT+ and ethnic minority football fans in Russia’; and New York Times, ‘Will FIFA Force Russia to Make the World Cup Friendly to L.G.B.T. People?’.
94. BBC, ‘World Cup: Safety Fears for Gay Fans Heading to Russia’.
95. BBC, ‘World Cup 2018: Alexei Smertin says Gay People and Minorities will Feel Safe in Russia’.
96. Horne, ‘Understanding the Denial of Abuses of Human Rights connected to Sports Mega-Events’.
97. See i.e. Millward, ‘World Cup 2022ʹ; and Schofield et al., ‘Human Rights and Sports Mega-Events’.
98. Joern, ‘Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear?’.
99. Hassan, ‘Securing the Olympics’; Toohey and Taylor, ‘Surveillance and Securitization’.
100. Lyon, Surveillance Studies, 177.
101. Edensor, ‘Producing Atmospheres at the Match’.
102. Spaaij, ‘Risk, Security and Technology’.
103. Fussey et al. ‘Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City’, 209.
104. Schofield et al., ‘Human Rights and Sports Mega-Events’.
105. Coleman and Sim, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
106. Nishiyama, ‘Crowd Surveillance’.
107. Kirby et al. ‘Can the FIFA World Cup Football (Soccer) Tournament Be Associated with an Increase in Domestic Abuse?’.
108. Consult:Weed, ‘The Pub’.
109. Giulianotti and Klauser, ‘Security Governance’.
110. Poulton, ‘English Media Representation’; and Stott and Pearson, Football ‘Hooliganism’.
111. Van Rheenen, ‘A Skunk at the Garden Party’.
112. Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity.
