Hooligans or supporters?

Journalists must use the language correctly. A lot of people repeat what they hear, watch or read in the newspapers and if the information or the words are not the right, is when mistakes appear.

During a long time, here both in the Catalan and Spanish press they use to call hooligans to all the British supports. Maybe it is because my mother is English that annoyed me a lot. Of course you can find hooligans in England and there are well known because of the trouble they have created in some trips with their teams or the national team, but not all the supporters are hooligans. Here in Spain we had a lot of groups that went to the matches to cause trouble. In past years, a lot of them have disappeared but we also had our problems with big fights and people that even got killed.

The other day, watching the match between Atlético de Madrid and Chelsea, I saw a lot of families in the stands of the stadium. Honestly, I doubt that a ten year old boy is a hooligan or his parents. Obviously, I know that there are hooligans that can’t go out of their country and the Police are after them, but as I said, not all of the supporters are like that. However, I have to admit that in the past years this word is used more accurately and most of the journalist referred to them as supporters.

But one thing journalists can’t avoid talking is about the supporters and the beers. The other day, in one of the main radio stations in Spain, a journalist said that the streets of Madrid were full of Chelsea supporters with their beer in their hands AS if the English supporters are the only ones who drink. It is true that sometimes they get carried away but thery are not the only ones.

Last week R. Madrid and Barcelona played the Spanish Cup final and I saw a lot of photographs and TV shots were I could see supporters of the two teams with beers in their hands. I am sure that more than one of them arrived completely drunk to the match. I have been to three finals myself and in all of them I have seen how the supporters drink since first thing in the morning.

As I wrote at the beginning journalists have to be very careful. They generate some topics that can create mistakes. Of course British supporters drink, but also the supporters of any team, specially, in an important game for them. I am not saying that it is right, what I want to point out is that it is something normal in football.