History Of Football: The Beautiful Game

The Dark Side (1x8)

: 30, 2002

This interesting episode looks at the darker side of football. The general perception of the public around the world is that football fans are hooligans and racists and this episode shows some examples of why this perception is held. It also looks at the plane crashes that killed the Torino and Manchester United teams in the late 40s and 1968 respectively, as well as the Zambian national team disaster. It looks at the conflict between El Salvador and Hondures in 1970 which was said to have been caused because of football. Stadium disasters are covered including the collapse in Peru in 1964, the Heysel Stadium tragedy and the Hillsborough disaster. Hooliganism is covered, but I must say this is not a true look at the phenomena. It focuses on the English game, but most will be aware that this is not just an English problem, South American and other European countries are rife with the problem also, so it is a little unfair to single out England. (Editor's note: Spoken like a true Pom, Adrian!)