Abstract
This introductory chapter to A New Agenda for Football Crowd Management sets out the remit, aims, and methodology of this book, establishing how we will drive the debate around football crowd management forward. It begins with a discussion of the violence and disorder that occurred around the ‘Euro 2020’ Final at Wembley, explaining how the events of that day transpired and questioning what went wrong in the management of the crowd. We then critique some of the recommendations from the Casey Review into the disorder, questioning the value of knee-jerk reaction and the creation of panic law, and calling for a more evidence-based approach to developing football crowd management. We introduce and problematise current understandings of ‘risk’ in football, recommend a greater focus upon the human rights of fans, and make the case for greater interdisciplinary analysis to understand football disorder, particularly by bringing the legal and policing disciplines closer together. We argue that in the context of post-Covid-19 lockdown increases in disorder, now is a good time to refocus on the management of football crowds.
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Notes
- 1.
The UKFPU is a quango funded by the Home Office responsible for national oversight and coordination of football policing.
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Pearson, G., Stott, C. (2022). Introduction. In: A New Agenda For Football Crowd Management. Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16298-5_1
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