Football crowds have been viewed as a problematic presence from the start of the modern game. ‘Uncontrolled’ working class fans have a contradictory position within football. They help create the atmosphere at matches, pay to enter the grounds and are a source of commercial exploitation but also potentially threaten to disrupt matches or clash with rivals both in and around grounds. For the state, and for the clubs, fans represent a problem of ‘law and order’. How can and should fans be moved about? How can the (particularly) young fans be controlled?
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Lavalette et al. (2013) studied this question.