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When Saturday comes: football, public disorder and Liverpool's urban crisis, c. 1965–1985

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Daniel Warner*
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar
*
*Corresponding author. Email: danwarner_987@hotmail.co.uk

Abstract

This article uses oral histories, media representations and local archives to examine how football-related disorder in Liverpool impacted the lived experiences of local communities and informed perceptions, reactions and solutions to the city's unfolding urban crisis. It traces how the aggressive architectural transformation of the city's stadiums wrought significant and unintended consequences upon supporters and inner-city communities alike. By conceptualizing the stadium as a succinct example through which to view the anxieties that surrounded problematic urban spaces, it examines the relationship between the governance, materiality and use of the inner city during the urban crisis.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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Footnotes

This article is built upon research and interviews conducted for a Ph.D. at the University of Liverpool and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, focused on the working-class experience of post-war urban renewal and decline.

References

1 C. Ward, Steaming in: The Classic Account of Life on the Football Terraces (London, 1989), 77–8.

2 Merseyside Police, c. 1980, Liverpool Record Office (LRO) 363.2094275 MER.

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5 Andrews, ‘Dereliction’, 237; L. Esher, A Broken Wave: The Rebuilding of England, 1940–1980 (London, 1981), 239. For accounts of post-war Liverpool's urban change, see also D. Muchnick, Urban Renewal in Liverpool: A Study of the Politics of Redevelopment (London, 1970); J. Murden, ‘“City of change and challenge”: Liverpool since 1945’, in J. Belchem (ed.), Liverpool 800: Culture, Character & History (Liverpool, 2006), 393–485; and Smith, O. Saumarez, ‘Graeme Shankland: a sixties architect-planner and the political culture of the British left’, Architectural History, 57 (2014), 393422Google Scholar.

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7 Sunday Times, 25 Aug. 1985.

8 Merseyside Police Authority, Annual Report 1978 (Liverpool, 1978), 89.

9 S. Inglis, The Football Grounds of England and Wales (London, 1983), 197.

10 Ibid., 192–3.

11 Saumarez Smith, ‘Inner city crisis’, 581.

12 Liverpool City Centre Plan (Liverpool, 1965), 53.

13 Football Monthly, Jan. 1964.

14 Liverpool Daily Post (LDP), 3 Dec. 1963.

15 D.A. Nye, ‘A football team and its public image’ (thesis submitted in part-fulfilment of the requirements for the Diploma in Industrial Administration at Liverpool University, Aug. 1964).

16 R. Bagchi and P. Rogerson, The Unforgiven: The Story of Don Revie's Leeds United (London, 2014), 85–6.

17 Sunday Express, 8 Nov. 1964; Guardian, 9 Nov. 1964; and Daily Mail, 9 Nov. 1964.

18 Liverpool Echo (LE), 20 Apr. 1966; Glasgow Evening Standard, 20 Apr. 1966.

19 Daily Mirror, 9 Nov. 1963.

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23 City in Transition: A Review of Urban Trends in Liverpool, 1961–1976 and Their Future Implications, LRO HQ3091.1.CIT.

24 Murden, ‘“City of change and challenge”’, 414. See also R. Meegan, ‘Paradise postponed: the growth and decline of Merseyside's outer estates’, in P. Cooke (ed.), Localities: The Changing Face of Urban Britain (London, 1989), 198–234.

25 D. Robins, We Hate Humans (London, 1984).

26 N. Allt, The Boys from the Mersey: The Story of the Annie Road End Crew, Football's First Clobbered up Mob (Lytham, 2004), 76; and D. Hewitson, The Liverpool Boys Are in Town: The Birth of Terrace Culture (Liverpool, 2008), 15.

27 Daily Express, 5 Feb. 1973, LDP, 5 Feb. 1973.

28 LE, 5 Feb. 1973.

29 A. Nicholls, Scally: Confessions of a Category C Football Hooligan (Lytham, 2004).

30 J. Bale, Sport, Space and the City (London, 1993).

31 Birmingham Research Group directed by J. Harrington, Soccer Hooliganism: A Preliminary Report (Bristol, 1968).

32 J. Lang, Report of the Working Party on Crowd Behaviour at Football Matches (London, 1969), 5–8; Supplementary Report on the Experimental Use of Television Cameras and Commando Police Patrolling by Liverpool City Police, The National Archives (TNA), Home Office 377/16; and C. Williams, ‘Police surveillance and the emergence of CCTV in the 1960s’, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 5 (2003), 27–37.

33 J. Wheatley, Report of the Inquiry into Crowd Safety at Sports Grounds (London, 1972).

34 Inglis, Football Grounds, 33–6.

35 For example, see Williams, J., ‘Football hooliganism: offences, arrests and violence – a critical note’, British Journal of Law and Society, 7 (1980), 104–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Trivizas, E., ‘Offences and offenders in football crowd disorders’, British Journal of Criminology, 20 (1980), 276–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 For example, see O. Newman, Defensible Space: People and Design in the Violent City (London, 1973); C.R. Jeffrey, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (Beverly Hills, 1977); and A. Coleman, Utopia on Trial: Vision and Reality in Planned Housing (London, 1985). For example, in a Liverpool context, see A. Leather and A. Matthews, ‘What the architects can do: a series of design guidelines’, in C. Ward (ed.), Vandalism (London, 1973).

37 B. Bebber, Violence and Racism in Football: Politics and Cultural Conflict in British Society, 1968–1998 (London, 2012), 72.

38 See Department of the Environment, Football Spectator Violence: Report of an Official Working Group (London, 1984), 22; Williams, ‘Police surveillance’, 34.

39 W. Arens, ‘Playing with aggression’, in J. Cherfas and R. Lewin (eds.), Not Work Alone: A Cross-Cultural View of Activities Superfluous to Survival (London, 1980), 80.

40 Observer, 27 Aug. 1972.

41 Hewitson, Liverpool Boys, 61.

42 Guardian, 1 Nov. 1975.

43 Hewitson, Liverpool Boys, 61.

44 Observer, 1 Sep. 1985.

45 For example, see Bodin, D. and Robène, L., ‘Hooligans, casuals, independents: decivilisation or rationalisation of the activity?’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 31 (2014), 2026Google Scholar.

46 Hewitson, Liverpool Boys, 61; Nicholls, Scally, 13.

47 Liverpool and Bootle Constabulary Report on Everton vs Liverpool, 24 Feb. 1971, TNA HO 287/2051.

48 Allt, Boys from the Mersey.

49 LDP, 1 Apr. 1985.

50 Osgerby, Youth in Britain, 100; J. Davis, Youth and the Condition of Britain: Images of Adolescent Conflict (London, 1990), 212.

51 Jackson, ‘“Coffee club menace”’, 304.

52 Lang, Crowd Behaviour, 7.

53 LE, 19 Aug. 1978.

54 Interview with Brian Burrows, LRO, Everton Collection Oral History Recordings, 796EFC/57/3.

55 Interview with Eddie by the author, 27 Jul. 2015.

56 Allt, Boys from the Mersey.

57 Public Disorder and Sporting Events: A Report by the Joint Panel of the Sports Council and the Social Science Research Group (London, 1978), 9.

58 Nicholls, Scally.

59 See also Guardian, 23 Oct. 1978.

60 LE, 15 Apr. 1985; LDP, 16 Apr. 1985.

61 Frank McElhone, Report of the Working Group on Football Crowd Behaviour (Edinburgh, 1977), 15.

62 Department of the Environment, Football Spectator Violence, 15.

63 LDP, 8 Mar. 1977.

64 J.W. Carroll, ‘Task force: the first year’, Police Journal, 43 (1970), 325.

65 Scottie Press, 3 (Apr. 1971).

66 Nicholls, Scally, 8.

67 Interview with Eddie by the author, 27 Jul. 2015.

68 Allt, Boys from the Mersey, 37.

69 Memoirs from visiting supporters recalled similar practices. For example, see M. Francis and P. Walsh, Guvnors: The Autobiography of a Football Hooligan Gang Leader (Lytham, 1997); I. Hough, Perry Boys: The Casual Gangs of Manchester and Salford (Wrea Green, 2007); and T. O'Neill, Red Army General: Leading Britain's Biggest Hooligan Firm (Lytham, 2005).

70 LE, 21 Mar. 1977.

71 Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research, Football and Football Hooliganism in Liverpool (Leicester, 1987), 16.

72 Merseyside Police Authority, Annual Report 1978, 89.

73 LDP, 8 Mar. 1977.

74 LE, 21 Mar. 1977.

75 LDP, 22 Mar. 1977.

76 LDP, 7 Feb. 1978.

77 Ibid.

78 Ibid.

79 LDP, 21 Mar. 1977; LDP, 7 Feb. 1978.

80 LDP, 9 Feb. 1978.

81 Ibid.

82 See McElhone, Football Crowd Behaviour, xiv.

83 Merseyside Police Authority, Annual Report 1979 (Liverpool, 1979), 100.

84 Interview with Eddie by the author, 27 Jul. 2015.

85 J. McClure, Spike Island: Portrait of a Police Division (London, 1980), 269–70.

86 Guardian, 15 Nov. 1979.

87 Norman Chester Centre, Football Hooliganism in Liverpool, 27–8.

88 For a review of the genre, see Dart, J., ‘Confessional tales from former football hooligans: a nostalgic, narcissistic wallow in football violence’, Soccer and Society, 9 (2008), 4255CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Redhead, S., ‘Hit and tell: a review essay on the soccer hooligan memoir’, Soccer and Society, 5 (2004), 392403CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an account of disorder in Stanley Park, see Hewitson, Liverpool Boys, 62.

89 LDP, 11 Apr. 1977.

90 Interview with Dave by the author, 1 Apr. 2016.