Returning to the ‘pop culture' interpretation of the modern game, the question must be asked, how did this pop culture evolve? The answer lies in the hooliganism of the preceding decades, and an attempt to sanitize the sport. Hooliganism is again seen as part of the ritual trappings of the nature of the sport, and variously accredited to a variety of social problems (O'Brien, 1987). The phenomenon of hooliganism was not spawned in the 1950s or 60s as many have argued (see Mason, cited in Johnson, 1994, p121), but rather has been a constant feature of the game since its conception, mainly due to the working class supporter base,

"It is not surprising therefore to find that the history of violence from working class industrial areas also pre-dates the beginnings of football and football related violence" (O'Brien, 1987, p5).

Therefore football may have been seen as a channel for the aggression of these young workers, and indeed there were many violent clashes reported in the late Nineteenth century, and a full-scale riot in Glasgow in 1909 (Nawart & Johnson, 1995, p22). There is indisputable evidence that violence between rival supporters certainly escalated in the 1970s and 80s, but it was by no means a new problem.

The 1909 Glasgow riot, professedly over the need to replay a Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers, actually had its roots in centuries of turmoil across the Irish Sea. Rangers, who wear the blue, white and red of the Union Jack, were formed by Protestant highlanders in Glasgow in 1873 (H.Taylor, 1961, p15), and soon came to represent the majority of Scottish Protestantism; Celtic on the other hand were formed by Irish Catholic immigrants, and wear the green and white of Ireland. Glasgow has a considerable Irish population, of both denominations, and to a lesser extent is a divided city. Over the years there have been many violent clashes over the football, inextricably linked to religious bigotry, although none as potentially lethal as that between Glenavon and Cliftonville in 1991, both of Belfast, where a grenade was thrown into the Catholic Cliftonville end, miraculously killing no-one (Allison, 1993, p180).

To many neutral observers, the link between football and religion seems strange, however there is a strong historical tradition between the church and the sport, as many church leaders actively promoted participation in team sports (Pugh, 1994, p69). A celebrated example of a successful ‘church' team is Southampton, whose nickname ‘Saints' gives away the fact that they were once Southampton St Mary's Football Club.
The relationship between religion and football need not be so clear cut, and indeed it has been argued that the latter has to a certain extent replaced the former, in the sense that many thousands gather regularly at a ‘sacred' place - compare a football ground to a cathedral (Bale, cited in Williams &Wagg, 1991, p131) - to offer their homage and worship to their team. In this modern era, where theories concerning the ‘Death of God' are often advanced to explain contemporary society, it is not difficult to see why some have cited football as a substitute,

"In a land of ‘No Gods and precious few heroes' [Scotland] football has come nearest to filling a cultural void" (Holt, 1992, p260).

Richard Holt expands on this by considering Durkheim's theory of religion (Holt, 1992, pp261-2), although qualifies his argument by stating that it only applies in Scotland. One notable Scottish voice of dissent is Bill Shankly, the celebrated manager, who said of Liverpool fans,

"Its a religion to them. The thousands who come here to worship... it's a sort of shrine" (cited in Forsyth, 1990, p80).

The massed hordes of football supporters have even been described as ‘the Labour Party in prayer' (Fishwick, 1989, p150), although to some the replacement of religion with football is not all healthy, and to many Marxists, it is the new ‘opiate of the people', and is hence used as a tool for social control, in much the same way that religion had been for many years previously (Morris, 1981, p24)

The idea that football, and modern sport as a whole, is a method of social control is not a particularly new one, and can be traced back to the Roman Imperial prescription of ‘bread and circuses' in order to quell any dissatisfaction,

"Marxist-orientated criticisms of sport and its spectators have emphasized its ‘dehumanising' effect and the role it serves as part of the ‘bread and circuses' that distract the proletariat" (R.Taylor, 1992, p10).

There is no doubt that historically football has been hugely representative of the class divides that have been rife throughout British society, as pictures of thousands of flat caps huddled on an open terrace testify (Mason, 1981, cover),

"For the working class football became a symbol of their defiance of the governing class, and incidentally coincided with the rise of the Labour Party" (Nawart & Hutchings, 1995, p6).

However, with the advent of all-seater stadia, the ensuing price rises, and the growth of executive hospitality at football matches, the class distinction, perhaps mirroring the rest of society, has become somewhat blurred, another effect of the sanitization of the game. A knock-on effect of these changes is that many ‘old' fans can ill afford to watch every game, and instead watch the game from satellite television in their living room or down the pub, their places at matches being taken by a new generation of affluent middle-class supporters and followers of ‘pop' football. Of course, the migration of supporters from the terraces to the television may be seen as a further expansion of football as a mass spectator sport.

Even with consideration of the above theories: football as ‘pop culture'; football as a tribal ritual; football as a surrogate religion; and football as a social drug; is it possible to account for the rise of football as a mass spectator sport with these alone? As a dedicated football supporter myself, one who attends matches as opposed to watching on television, I feel it is impossible to pigeon-hole the sport neatly into any of the above categories. Not without careful consideration of the escapism and emotional fulfilment that football can provide, and these can only truly be appreciated if football is ‘in your blood'. The above theories may go some way towards explaining how football has been used, and help account for its rise in part, but surely the basic popularity of the sport, and the excitement it has provided to millions of spectators must also be taken into consideration. After all,

"Whatever happened to the People's Game?" (Walvin, 1986, p1).