Ecstacy escape for World Cup soccer violence-
Author: Jonty Skrufff
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Soccer violence expert Bill Buford, whose book about running with Manchester United gangs in the 80s Among The Thugs remains one of the best on soccer hooliganism, predicted that World Cup violence will be manageable in Germany next month, partly because of dance culture.
“It’s probably not as bad as it was because it was kind of a social trend,” the acclaimed US travel writer told the Kansas City Star this week.
“Most of it (soccer violence) got replaced by rave music. A lot of the organizers of the violence of the ’80s became organizers of the rave nights and rave clubs. It was weirdly and apolitically that they had switched from one violent thing to a non-violent thing. It was completely arbitrary.”
Buford became relatively accepted by United hooligans and was even beaten up as a suspected thug by Italian police during England’s World Cup campaign in 1990, and admitted he’d ended up fully understanding the buzz of gangs.
“One of the things that surprised me is that it was extremely exciting for everybody,” he admitted, “And there was, as perverse as it seems, an element of fun, that it was a kind of drug-like pleasure.”
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