Comment

In a league of his own

By 
Mike Guilfoyle
Thursday, 3 September 2015

Having recently read Brian LePierre's engagingly written account of Hooliganism in the former Soviet Union, put me in mind of Barry (not his real name) when working as a probation officer.

When Barry first came to the probation office after release from prison (he had completed a term of imprisonment for his involvement in a well-publicised football-related disturbance which the sentencing judge had described as 'violent disorder on a frightening scale’), Barry exuded a moody masculinity fuelled at times by copious ingestions of alcohol plus what he defined as ' relaxing' substances.

Barry clearly bristled at the prospect of having to serve the balance of his sentence on licence in the community and made his feelings clear in a very direct and vernacular manner! This lingering resentment was, it appeared, aggravated by his being refused early release on Home Detention Curfew (due it seems to a patchy assessment authored by a former colleague!). The court had also imposed a lengthy 'customised' ban on Barry under Section 14a of the Football Spectators Act 1989 preventing his attendance at this favourite club and this was a source of much bilious commentary during his reporting sessions.

One organisational restiction that I sensed began to have an impact at the time on the quality of supervision, which was difficult to fully quantify, were the poorly thought through managerial pressures to restrict the number of home visits, which I believed distanced the professional relationship and certainly risked probation workers becoming ever more detached from the neighbourhood that the office served. Barry had managed to re-establish himself in insecure employment and although he drew back from admitting that he still kept company with some of his erstwhile 'football firm' this was an issue that featured regularly in our sessions.

At the half-way point in Barry's period on supervision, we reviewed the challenges, changes and costs of his 'offending behaviour'. It was apparent to me that he had recognised and dealt with the 'penal bite' of custody and conditional freedom on licence and in Barry’s words, 'I finished with the rucks'.  Although he took a more moralistic tone when it came to, what he perceived as, the 'media sponsored' negativity that attached to his affiliated club.

There were times when he was able to engage in some joshing banter given my own identified attachment to another soccer club of somewhat 'greater stature'! This helped to connect in a more meaningful manner with the need to offer a different narrative such that the need to become re-involved in hooligan behaviour had less of an immediate appeal. So, having to listen to him regurgitating endless but colourful lists of results and scores and his club’s varying league positions (usually in the wrong direction!) was merely a mirror of my own (less recognised) cultural passion for 'the people's game'.  Indeed, I did hesitantly concede the 'adrenalin fuelled exhilaration' I experienced when being been present at an episode of ‘minor' football-related disorder recounted in Bill Bufford's book.

Certainly taking out a chunk of Barry's leisure time by way of the ongoing ban left a space that he struggled to fill, but the impending prospect of fatherhood enabled him to contemplate what becoming a parent could offer. ‘Maybe junior could play for the club?’ he said. Although broached in supervision, the issue of casual racism and some entrenched attitudes to 'minorities' had to be more sensitively addressed, but this was an area that Barry appeared uncomfortable about, and as such this tension provided some creative scope for reimagining scenarios that offered more empathic awareness.

Just before the expiry of Barry's period on supervision I was informed, via the Police Football Intelligence Unit, that he now faced the real possibility of being recalled to prison as he was deemed to have breached his banning order by being seen in the vicinity of his football club’s stadium on the day of a 'high profile' local derby. Whilst registering my clear disappointment, I made further enquiries and before formalising any recall action (the proven breach of such an order also attracted a custodial sentence), and was able to determine that whilst near the location, he had been arrested in a precautionary police sweep and in fact could prove that he was visiting his ailing father.

At our final supervision meeting Barry anticipated that my measured scepticism as to his explanation for his release without charge was misplaced. With his tell-tale shrug and rueful smile he opined, 'Mike, you stick with your firm and try not to get into any run-ins'!!