Burnley Football Hooligan Escapes Jail Because He Loves His Dog

IS that you in the “DEE 38” top biting off part of a fan’s ear at the Champions League final in Rome?

Football hooliganism was once the media’s favourite topic. One of your writer’s first jobs in sports journalism was to compile a “Year Of Shame” list. It turned out that the archives had one for each year and all that was needed was to look for any game in the past 12 months featuring two of Leeds, Chelsea or Millwall to keep it up to date.

The media loves talking of and talking up crowd trouble. You do get lunatics like “Dee 38” and one Michael Lewis, who breached his Football Banning Order for the third time when he went to a match at Blackpool.

Lewis’s case show that banning orders can work. But are they effective?

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Anorak

Posted: 29th, October 2009 | In: Sports | Comments (2)