John Williams argues that the efforts of the police to keep hooliganism in the spotlight are masking the real progress that has been made combating violence
Notice the signs, recently, of a new football season approaching? Press stories complaining of too much TV football coverage; fierce debates on player wage hikes; Deloitte and Touche’s annual lecture on the booming financial power of the Premier League and how the market is good for football – but watch out for that nasty club overspend; and now, slotted nicely into the week leading up to the big kick-off, the National Criminal Intelligence Service report on the arrest figures related to football. This, too, has become something of an annual media event.