 football hooliganism refers to unruly, violent, and destructive behaviour by overzealous supporters of association football clubs, including brawling, vandalism and intimidation. football hooliganism normally involves conflict between gangs, often known as football firms (the term derives from the british slang for a criminal gang), formed for the specific purpose of intimidating and physically attacking supporters of other teams. certain clubs have long-standing rivalries with other clubs (usually, but not always, geographically close) and hooliganism associated with matches between them (sometimes called local derbies), is likely to be more severe. conflict may take place before, during or after matches. participants often select locations away from stadia to avoid arrest by the police, but conflict can also erupt spontaneously inside the stadium or in the surrounding streets. in such cases, shop windows may be smashed, rubbish bins set on fire, and police cars may be overturned. in extreme cases, hooligans, police, and bystanders have been killed, and body-armoured riot police have intervened with tear gas, police dogs, armoured vehicles and water cannons.  ==hooligan behaviour== football hooliganism involves a wide range of behaviour, including: * taunting, e.g. by abusive chanting, sometimes obscene * spitting * unarmed fighting * throwing of objects on to the pitch, either in an attempt to harm players and officials or as a gesture of insult (as when bananas are thrown towards players of black african origin, the implication being that they are monkeys) *throwing of objects at opposing supporters, including stones, bricks and molotov cocktails. * use of pyrotechnic devices such as flares and smoke bombs * fighting with weapons including sports bats, glass bottles, rocks, rebar, knives, machetes and firearms. * disorderly crowd behaviour such as pushing, which may cause stadium fixtures such as fences and walls to collapse. simila
Association_football_hooliganism Violence