Hooliganism in Football (Soccer)

Hooliganism has been around for many many years and the debate on whether the "war" on hooliganism is successfull is an ongoing topic.  Hooliganism refers to unruly, destructive, aggressive and bullying behavior. Such behaviour is commonly associated with sports fans, particularly supporters of football (soccer).  The term can also apply to general rowdy behavior and vandalism, often under the influence of alcohol and or drugs.  These "fans" congrigate in "firms" and use thier cell phones and the internet to meet up with other "firms" at agreed locations to fight. This is not just happing in football nations but also the USA.

May 29th, 1985. Liverpool vs. Juventas, Heysel Stadium.  Liverpool fans broke through a police barrier thinking they would be met by Ultras which is a Juventus hooligan firm they ran into Italian families who then tried to run away and in doing so, forcing a wall to colapse and crushing those beneath it.  This inceident of hooliganism cause 39 deaths.

Ghana, 2001. Fans stampeded to the exits after police caused panic by firing tear gas in to the crowd after some trouble began with just five minutes remaining of the match. The panic caused by the police caused the fans to charge out of the stadium, crushing 125 people and injuring many more.

July 2008, Columbus, Ohio.  The Columbus Crew were hosting West Ham in a friendly match over 100 Crew and West Ham fans clashed before the game.  In that same weekend, members of the Empire Supports Club (ESC) who are the supporters for the New York Red Bulls, where permanently ejected and banned from football matches. They clashed with NJSEA security force over what the ESC believed to be unfair and repeated mistreatment.

The use of security cameras in the venues and the use of police force has cut down on hooliganism in football nations.  Will hooligamism ever go away or will the acts of hooliganism pick up?  Only time will tell because such behavior would be appropriate in the 1950's but not in present times.

1976 Winter Olympics in Denver, CO....NOT!

On November 7th, 1972 the state of Colorado held a vote to see if tax payers were willing to host the Winter Olympics in their state.  Nearly 60% voted NO!  Before the vote the state promised to spend no more than $5 million on the games and 80% were against it.  The people of Colorado had learned that it cost California $13.5 million, Innsbruck in 1964 $20 million, France spending $14.7 million on facilities alone and that Japan was going to spend more than $17 million on facilities for the 1972 games.  So, the IOC had to move the games to another location that had just hosted the games 12 years earlier.  The host city ended up being Innsbruck, Austria.  Just two and a half years earlier a group from Denver who returned from a meeting with the IOC were praised with a motorcycle ride through downtown and with a brass band playing as they arrived.   


The people of Colorado said that the promoters never asked how they felt about hosting the games and tried to imply that they lacked patriotism if they were not for the games.  Other issues was that it was going to destroy the natural beauty of Colorado by tearing down trees and such because Colorado was planning on using up a 166-mile distance, which is from Denver to Steamboat Springs.  It was also thought that more people were going to move into Colorado because of snow-capped mountains and wide open spaces that were already attracting newcomers.  Mike Moran said "I don't think the likelihood of any city in America hosting the Winter Games is probably practical until after 2020".  Well he was obviously wrong because Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Games in 2004 due to many controversies.  

Inroduction

Hi, my name is Jacob Westmeyer.  I am 20 years old.  I go to Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where I currently rank as a Junior.  I am majoring in Sports Management, in hopes to become a high school athletic director.  I'm from a Wauseon, Ohio which is 30 minutes West of Toledo, about an hour East of Indiana and 45 minutes North West of Bowling Green. 

My decision to come to Bowling Green wasn't a tough one.  I had heard a lot of good things about the Sports Management feild and that it was well respected at BGSU.  I also had a friend graduate from Bowling Green with his Batchlors in Science of Education and then went to the University of Conneticut and got his masters degree. 

My favorite sports teams are the Dallas Cowboys, Colorado Avalance, and the Toledo Mudhens.  My favorite baseball player is Ken Griffey Jr and now that he his retired I don't follow baseball much.  My sports interest are action sports, football and hockey.  I played football for three years in high school and I have been playing hockey since I was 6 1/2.  I just recently started skating vert.  I would like to go the X-Games and watch the BMX Flatland portion.  If you don't know what Flatland is click on the link and be amazed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2LTVhqHAdo