[I]t is because of the hooligans that many regular fans stopped going to the stadium. Dinamo Zagreb are a good example of this. Their Maksimir stadium is the largest in Croatia, with a capacity of 35,000, but their average attendance is a shade over 4,000. Their hooligans, the Bad Blue Boys, occupy three tiers of one stand behind a goal, but the rest of the ground is empty. Their dedication has driven everyone else away.
… When fans go to the stadium, they are corralled by police in riot gear, herded into the stadium and body-searched. Police treat football matches as a riot waiting to happen and often seem as if they want one to occur, if only to break up the boredom – in Germany, they get paid more when they are forced to wear their riot helmets, which many fans feel makes them prone to starting and exacerbating trouble rather than stopping it. The situation that created the Hillsborough disaster – that is, a total breakdown in trust between the police and football supporters – is recreated again afresh. The old adage that treating people like animals makes them act like animals is played out everywhere.
… For many of those involved with violence, their club and their group are the only things that they have to hold on to, especially in countries with failing economies and decreased opportunities for young men. Ideas of bruised masculinity and masculine alienation filter heavily into this argument as well. It is rare that young, successful men with jobs and families go out of their way to start fights on the weekend at football matches.