Jonas Havelund

A qualitative examination of police officers’ perception of football supporters

Several studies stress the importance of thorough knowledge of supporter culture in order to assess the actual level of risk at football matches thereby ensuring a balanced approach by the police in order to avoid conflict situations. This study examines how Danish police officers perceive and categorise football supporters on the basis of a field-based observational study and a qualitative interview study undertaken at the East Jutland Police department in Denmark in the period 2008–2009. The main findings show a general lack of knowledge of supporter culture as well as scepticism towards engaging in dialogue with football supporters. As a consequence of these findings, the East Jutland Police department initiated an educational programme on dialogue policing in 2010. The programme has been successfully evaluated and is now implemented on a national basis.

Ultras in Denmark. The new football thugs

Abstract It is no longer just the notorious ‘football hooligans’ who appear to behave in a problematic way in connection with football matches. Since the beginning of the 2000s, ultras have increasingly been playing the most acoustically and optically noticeable role in the Danish stadiums. This article looks in more detail at the moderate Danish ultras, who proactively work for a positive, intense fan culture that rejects discrimination and violence and try to promote better conditions for supporters, and the consequences of the criminalization of fan behaviour. The article concludes that there is a lack of knowledge of the specific sub-cultural backgrounds of the various supporters’ behaviour, but also of fan culture as a whole among the authorities and clubs.

Policing football crowds in Sweden

ABSTRACT The policing of football crowds in Sweden is underpinned by a national coordination approach based upon a set of conflict reducing principles and supported by crowd theory. The approach is referred to as the Special Police Tactic (SPT). While focused on police capacity to exercise force, the SPT also gives primacy to tactics based upon communication, in the form of Dialogue Police. Existing research on the SPT focuses exclusively on the policing of protest crowds. This paper extends the existing literature by reporting on a large scale three-year observational research project examining the SPT as it is applied to football fixtures involving several of Sweden’s major football clubs. On the basis of our analysis we draw out how policing operations in line with facilitation and communication were associated with effective outcomes. However, we also highlight deficiencies in national coordination and coherence as well as highlighting important innovations with regard to approaches to dialogue with football fans. We explore the implications of our analysis for theoretical understanding of effective football crowd management and engagement with fan culture.