The violence and deaths caused by the hard-line fans(hooligans) in soccer stadiums worldwide must be stopped before FIFA and the six confederations stop the sport itself. Hooligans have become powerful within the past forty years causing soccer stadiums to become dangerous where violence is affecting the teams and referees, as well as innocent bystanders. These hooligans exist since the 13th century and have been expanding to other countries ever since, influencing historical, social, political and cultural factors. Hopefully, increasing security in the stadiums, the media, and legislation will be able to control hooliganism.
When football came about, the matches would involve hundreds of players, and were ultimately just battles between rival villages or towns that used a ball in the form of a leather-bound inflated pig's bladder. They mostly used "football" as an opportunity to settle their disputes. As early as the 14th century there were requests for the game to be controlled. Football would drive ordinary citizens away from the market towns on match days, causing loss of business. The numerous arrests held none of the hooligans back, and so the games continued. By 1660, there were fifteen more .
attempts made where bans were even issued. "In 1829, a Frenchman who saw a football match in Derby asked "If this is what they call football, what do they call fighting""(Dunning, 1970) " the enemy tripped, shinned, charged with the shoulder, got you down and sat upon you in fact might do anything short of murder to get the ball from you."(Carnibella, 20).
The fighting between fans has come to an astonishing level. In March 1997, there was a rivalry in Holland (Amsterdam and Rotterdam). The rivalry was so strong that they actually set a date to go and fight on a day that a game wasn't even being played. The fight was only to show which team had the "best fans" which resulted in one death and many injuries.