Hooligans and barrackers: Crowd disorder and soccer in South Wales, c. 1906–39

• Published in: Soccer and society Vol. 1; no. 2; pp. 19 - 35
• Main Author: Johnes, Martin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-06-2000
• Subjects: British Isles, Wales
• ISSN: 1466-0970; 1743-9590
• DOI: 10.1080/14660970008721263

Drawing upon an extensive search of the local press, this article offers a quantitative and qualitative analysis of incidents of crowd disorder at soccer matches in South Wales in the period 1906-39. As well as contributing to the existing academic debate on the extent of football hooliganism in this period, it develops that debate through firmly situating the trouble in the class and cultural values of those who witnessed and perpetuated it. The paper argues that crowd disorder at and around soccer matches did take place, it was not a serious problem, certainly not on the lines of modern disturbances, and rooted in the working-class values of the day.