Legal Aspects of Combating Transnational Football Hooliganism in Europe

Abstract

Abstract‘Football hooliganism’ is a concept which is not easy to define. For instance, in the media, to a variety of incidents the label of ‘hooliganism’ has been used in a rather indeterminate way. The concept is broad as well as diffuse. As for present purposes one can say that football hooliganism has to do with crowd disorder involving football supporters. This involves usually some kind of criminal activity occurring at, just before or after a football match. Disorderly behaviour connected with the game of football has occurred in some form in virtually every EU Member State. Due to the various international and European competitions involving both national and club teams and the resultant travelling of large numbers of supporters together with the associated social and often violent disorder, football hooliganism has a highly visible profile. This international dimension has made it necessary to approach security in connection with football matches in a way that extends beyond national borders. This contribution charts the legal measures of a general nature which have been taken with regard to transnational football hooliganism. Also, individual countries in Europe have taken measures to combat transnational football hooliganism. In this contribution the various types of international measures will be dealt with in due course as well as the pertinent jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and decisions taken by the European Commission regarding ticketing in relation to safety aspects at football matches.KeywordsMember StatePolice ForceStrict LiabilitySport EventFootball ClubThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.