Are there American soccer hooligans?

Question

Are there American football hooligans?
Are there football hooligans in the US? What do you think of them?

Do you have any links to information about American football hooligans?

What exactly do they do? Are they organized?

Answer 1

I think they're called mexicans.

Answer 2

American Football Hooligans

Answer 3

Well certainly not football (soccer) hooligans. People have been known to get rowdy at baseball games (see away fans at either Yankee Stadium or Fenway when the Sox and Yanks play) and even a little bit at Football games. But no, we don't have organized hooliganism. Although Boston and Los Angeles fans have been known to riot when celebrating a championship.

Answer 4

No.

Unless the term hooligan is a slang term. If you mean "Hooliganism is unruly and destructive behavior." I don't think there are any soccer hooligans. Not enough people care about soccer in the United States. There are a lot of people that don't enjoy watching soccer or think that it is a lesser sport to football or basketball, but not really any "haters"

Answer 5

Our hooligans are called soccer moms. They drive kids around in minivans and tell everyone how busy they are. What a rowdy bunch!

Answer 6

No, there's seldom enough people in the stands at a soccer game to fight with anyway.
American football comes close though. They're not organized, and they don't usually get violent in the stands, but they will fight amongst themselves. Mostly they're just drunk, and if their team is losing, depressed.

Answer 7

I think the Americans who would be soccer hooligans are wrapped up in American football, basketball, or hockey and are not likely to even pay attention to soccer.

You have to remember the soccer is still mostly a fringe sport in the US outside of youth soccer leagues. The recent success of the US women has started to turn the tide, but it has a long way to go before it gains the type of passion seen in the UK or other parts of the world.

I actually can't stand the game. I prefer baseball or American football.

Answer 8

not really, I lived in Amsterdam age 10 to 13 and was cool w/ guys from F-side (AJAX FC), it's just a different culture. The rest of the world has much more passion for the game, hence fighting when someone insults your team. There are alot of supporters clubs but alot of em are lame and have bylaws like "no fighting or inciting messages"...Yeah, "Buncha Poofs" as the brits might say. Who knows as the years progress we might see some proper firms spring up in the U.S. but for now none of em go hard enough to really be considered a decent outfit. They do try and fight but from what I've seen when police arrive they run off instead of " 'avin it wif old bill".

Answer 9

Yes, they're called Oakland Raiders fans. They live in Oakland, CA. They just get drunk and start fighting. The team has a website but that's about it.

Answer 10

Not really. But that's one of the things I like about American soccer. We've got passionate fans, but there aren't really riots or anything. It makes you feel safer when you attend the games.

Answer 11

Hooliganism is not completely absent in US sports, but is generally at a much lower level than in Europe. Sports events are mostly considered family affairs, and crowd control is usually tight enough to keep them that way. However, there are occasional outbreaks. These mostly occur after championships; with winning fans roughing up their own city. This happened in Detroit a few years back after an NBA victory. The city of Philadelphia has apparently set up a court in the stadium where the Eagles play to handle out-of-order fans. In the MLS, there have reportedly been altercations between Galaxy and Chivas USA fan groups (the LA Riot Squad for the Galaxy and I think the Legion for Chivas), but on an orgnizational level fan clubs, unofficial or official, loudly denounce violence.

Beyond the family atmosphere, another factor in favor of keeping violence down is the extreme distance between cities here. Unless there is a local derby (such as Galaxy/Chivas), the visiting team's fan representation is likely to be relatively low. Add to that the cost not just of the tickets but of even simply getting to the game as a visiting fan, as well as the time commitment involved, chances are you're a retiree in a $500,000 RV. Plenty of room in an RV to carry weapons, I grant, but somehow I don't think so.