Impact of Spectators

When can the presence of a crowd have a positive effect on performance?

When the crowd are encouraging and behaving in “supportive” fashion. When a team is at home, often the support of the fans can be a huge advantage to the team.

Behaviour of supporters however, is not always so positive. How can crowd behaviour become unacceptable?

Abuse of players/officials Fighting and violence/hooliganism

Hooliganism and poor spectator behaviour is still a problem in football particularly. What are football clubs and other authorities doing to try to stop it?

Campaigns such as the “No Violence” internet site is publicised and endorsed by high profile players. Fair play awards are given to teams Segregation of supporters CCTV in grounds to identify culprits Supporters caught banned from grounds/travelling to England away games Identity cards for home supporters

Choose a sport which doesn’t have the same problems with the supporters and explain how/why it is different.

Two well known tragedies at football matches led to clubs being forced to make changes to their stadia. Fighting between Liverpool and Juventus fans at the Heysel Stadium disaster caused a wall to collapse, killing some Italian supporters. At the Hillsborough disaster, police allowed too many supporters into a small enclosure behind the goal and 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death. Following these two tragedies, the Taylor report made certain recommendations, particularly involving All seater stadia – Premiership football stadia must now be all seater Fans of opposing teams should be separated Perimeter fences should be removed