Article 1e: among the thugs (Buford, 1991)

Question 1

Journalist who joined a hooligan club for media-reporting purposes

Answer 1

A journalist joined a football club of Manchester City and meets almost only people who are ‘nobody’s’. Football is the only good things in their life for them. He also experiences one of the Hooligan fights against another group and is confronted with the police.
But why violence? It gives them a sense of freedom and they both want to fight. They think it’s just human nature.
The reporter eventually experiences the benefits and extase of being part of such a group: the feeling of weightlessnes and being above everything else, it’s like a drug.