That’s because the fans are not divided by geography (Anfield and Goodison Park are 500 meters away from each other, on opposite sides of Stanley Park), and when psychological trauma is included it seemed like everyone knew someone who had been harmed at Hillsborough. Scum journalists are banned from both their stadiums.
This is where my stewarding training comes in.
Football fans tend to not attack people, although if hooligans get in to a game crowd dynamics takes over. Some people will join in violence, but more will nope out and try and get away, effectively causing two surges. We were trained to identify ringleaders, and to do it fast so that they can be removed before that happened. It’s amazing how taking out one or two leaders can calm down a group of potential hooligans before things get really bad.
Things seem to have become worse in recent years, I don’t know how this years two hooligan incidents at Wembley (The Euro 2020 final and the England-Hungary game) were allowed to happen, I know there is a huge difference between the League Two games that I worked at and matches at the English national stadium but someone is fucking up there.
