Football the vehicle for societies woes or just a regular escape from reality?

Hearing that 74 people had been killed this week at a football match this week in Egypt, in many ways, did not really surprise me. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking Fast and Slow suggests that when we have been exposed to surprising or unlikely events we are then much less surprised when other similar ones take place. Thus, when I tell you I was reading and corresponding only this week about the football tragedy at Hillsborough you can see that my mind was almost primed for this sort of event. I had been to the Spurs game in question in 1981 up at Hillsborough.....a game predating the Liverpool disater by eight years. The discussion was on this web site: http://thehillsboroughdisasterdocumentary.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/hillsborough-1981-disaster-narrowly-avoided/

The Hillsborough Disaster Documentary

The making of the true story of the Hillsborough disaster

Hillsborough; 1981 Spurs disaster narrowly avoided.

November 16th, 2011 § 16 Comments

Most people know that in 1989, 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives in a terrible human crush at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield during an F.A. Cup semi-final match versus Nottingham Forest. You can read more about the 1989 disaster here.
What many people don’t know however is that disaster nearly struck eight years earlier, at the same ground, in the same round, of the same cup competition. That year it was Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers who travelled to the Hillsborough stadium, and it was the Spurs fans who were allocated the smaller, problematic Leppings lane end of the ground. There were broken limbs and other injuries sustained that day in 1981, but thankfully no fatalities largely due to the fact that the police opened up pitch-side gates as the crushing became apparent. If only they had done that in 1989.

Football disasters have happened all too often, even in my lifetime. Ibrox in 1971 saw the loss of 66 lives when a crush occurred on a stair case in the ground.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/8230503/The-Ibrox-Disaster-of-January-2-1971-which-claimed-66-lives-was-a-tragedy-waiting-to-happen.html

The Heysel disaster in 1985 led to the death of 39 Juventus supporters in a European final involving Liverpool.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/768380.stm

The Bradford City fire cost the lives of 56 people also in 1985 this was the day when an old wooden Grandstand caught fire with horrific effect.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2005/may/11/bradford

The Hillsborough tragedy cost the lives of 96 in 1989 the repercussions of this event still resonate today, 23 years on. This list of football related tragedies is in no way comprehensive many more have taken place worldwide at football matches.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_2491000/2491195.stm

The riot this week at Port Said involved supporters of local side Al-Masri and Cairo's Al-Ahly.
http://www.news.com.au/world/egypt-football-violence-kills-73-medics/story-e6frfkyi-1226260171443
 Much has been written about what happened at this particular football match. The Cairo side Al-Ahly and their local capital city counterparts Zamalek have a long and colourful history of derby rivalry. Al-Ahly are known to be the 'working class' supporters favourite team as opposed to their more 'middle class' rivals Zamalek. It has been suggested that when Al-Ahly traveled to Port Said to play Al-Masri  there were sinister undertones involved between their group of 'ultra supporters' and the various police and security forces at the match. The fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime in 2011 had left many unanswered questions in Egypt as the Moslem Brotherhood have won parliamentary legitmacy. The post-Mubarek status quo has left simmering resentment for various governement, political and religious groups. So, in this case, it seems that the ultras of Al-Ahly unwittingly walked into a 'pay back' not just in a football sense but more in a real life revenge scenario. It seems from reports that most of the 74 fans who died were caught in a stair well crush which could have been accidental and unplanned. However, some people also died from stab wounds....clearly intentional...no accident. Most criticism of the police and security at the Port Said comes from their apparent indifference and inaction as the riot developed. This charge will be addressed by the Egyption authorities.
For football it is yet another example of where the game is the venue for violence of some sort. True, in this case it may only have been the front for more sinister motives. The football violence of the 70's and 80's in the UK always had deeper social roots than politicians were willing to admit. Young men would in previous times served and fought in armies for the crown....'conscript them to the army' was the common call back then! As a fifteen year old, I followed my beloved Spurs all over the country.....if you haven't done it you won't be aware of the adrenalin and seeming empowerment that sort of thing brings. Are such young men thugs who just use football as the venue for their social sickness or is it football parochialism itself that breeds people to be this way wanting to confront each other? In Poland, young men routinely meet in large groups to have organised fist fights, these people also happen to football supporters. A case of chicken or the egg here, no doubt.
In a week of tragic happenings at football I'll leave you with a piece of advice. West Ham play Millwall today.......stay away from Upton Park between 12.30 and 15.00 today, the newshounds are sharpening their pencils as I write..........................