Although instances of football crowd violence and disorder have been a feature of association football throughout its history (e.g. Millwall's ground was reportedly closed in 1920, 1934 and 1950 after crowd disturbances), the phenomenon only started to gain the media's attention in the late 1950s due to the re-emergence of violence in Latin American football.
Meskipun kasus kekerasan sepak bola dan gangguan telah menjadi gangguan terhadap asosiasi sepak bola sepanjang sejarahnya, (misalnya, stadion Millwall dilaporkan ditutup pada tahun 1920, 1934 dan 1950 setelah gangguan), fenomena hanya mulai mendapatkan perhatian media di akhir-1950 karena munculnya kembali kekerasan di sepak bola Amerika Latin.