Football Hooliganism in the Netherlands: Patterns of Continuity and Change

Abstract

This article analyzes the emergence, development and dominant features of football hooliganism in the Netherlands. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, the author shows that contemporary football hooliganism in the Netherlands is more complex and less surveyable than in the past. Within this development, five dominant patterns are distinguished: the partial displacement of hooligan confrontations; increasing levels of planning and coordination; alternatives to physical violence; violence directed at the police and the heterogeneous social composition of hooligan groups. These patterns indicate that Dutch football hooliganism has changed rather than disappeared. The persistence of the phenomenon should be understood in terms of the attractions of the hooligan lifestyle to young men seeking adventure and excitement and the psycho-social pleasures associated with hooligan violence.

Planned hooligan fights: Contributing factors and significance for individuals who take part

“…Spectator violence around football matches manifests itself in the form of competitive violence between socially organized fan groups (Spaaij, 2007). Among such groups, a degree of shared identity exists both within countries and across societies, which revolves around 'their explicit interest in violent confrontation with rival fan groups' (Spaaij, 2008: 373).…”

Urban Influencers: An Analysis of Urban Identity in YouTube Content of Local Social Media Influencers in a Super-Diverse City

“…Next to spatially symbolic elements, cultural elements may also play an important role. For instance, Rotterdam soccer teams, as found both in the videos as well as the related channel communities, may provide a collective identity through shared fandom (Murrell and Dietz, 1992;Spaaij, 2008), as soccer teams are often connected to a city, functioning as a vehicle for a local identity, and rivalry between particular teams helps to strengthen collective identity through the feeling of us versus them (Spaaij, 2007(Spaaij, , 2008Shobe, 2008). Moreover, the presence of the Rotterdam accent and dialect adds an extra possibility for recognition, as dialect can be seen as a form of expressing one's place identity (Johnstone, 2011), and the Rotterdam accent is generally recognized in the Netherlands.…”

‘Wildlife’: Ecstatic practices of hardcore football and music fans during Czech and Slovak post-socialism

“…Guilianotti -Bonney -Hepworth 1994). These commentators have considered this behaviour in relation to the commodification of the game (Redhead 1997;Williams 2013), social movements and politicisation (Testa 2009), masculinity (Hodges 2014) and criminology (Spaaij 2007). They have also conducted detailed ethnographic research (Armstrong 1998).…”