Looking for trouble in all the right places

THEY haven’t gone away you know — that seemed to be the message of a Panorama special called “Hooligan” screened on BBC 1 during the week.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us who were at this summer’s World Cup came away from Germany with fond memories of a tournament which, as expected, was superbly well organised but which was mainly memorable for the festive mood which swept the whole country as the host nation exceeded all expectations by reaching the semi-finals. The vast majority of the visiting fans also did their bit to add to the gaiety and, all things considered, the football was pretty entertaining too.

With relief, we also noted that the much-predicted hooligan blood-letting at high-risk games involving England, Germany and Poland failed to materialise yes, there were outbreaks of trouble but nothing to write home about.