While football is legitimately regarded as the ultimate global game, its significance to Scotland is even more exaggerated, in historical, social and cultural terms. Scots were at the forefront of 'globalising' the sport, teaching the English and other foreigners to play a highly technical and 'passing' game, only to abandon this later with characteristic complacency. Within Scotland, 'the only game' has provided its inhabitants with a cultural obsession, in which sectarian, regional and national animosities and inequalities may be contested and unsatisfactorily resolved. Consequently, the Scots are credited with gifting the world the phenomenon of 'football hooliganism', primarily at domestic club level, although the authorities latterly claim to have 'solved' such fan disorder. Upon the national stage, some argue football's social and political impacts have been markedly more pernicious, in being a dubious receptacle for the tartan-coated 'sub-nationalism' of a nation still denied a protective State. Therefore, this thesis examines the culture of these two particular, polarised categories of Scottish football fans, namely the contemporary hooligans (the 'soccer casuals') and the national team's supporters (the carnival or ambassadorial 'Tartan Army'). The thesis draws heavily upon qualitative fieldwork with these supporter groups, undertaken over the course of five years (1990-1994). To achieve this, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part contextualises the discussion, by looking at previous explanations of football hooliganism and the extent to which these fit with initial evidence from the opposing, Scottish fan cultures. The second and third parts then introduce sustained fieldwork and analyses of these supporter groups.

The aim of the research is to evaluate crowd violence as it pertains to sports and its spectators. In particular, the research examines sports riots. "A sports riot is defined as violence-vandalism, throwing/shooting missiles, rushing the field or court, committing arson, and/or fighting- committed by five or more individuals in a crowd of one hundred people associated with a formally organized sporting event" (Lewis, 2007). On a micro level, the most prevalent form of spectator violence is the act of Hooliganism in relation to football (soccer). The research on this aggression has been primarily inherent in Europe and South and Central America in concert with soccer matches. One of the goals of the research is to see if this unique type violence has the potential to occur in North America when comparing it to Europe and more specifically the United Kingdom. Currently, the average Major League Soccer (MLS) teams are capturing slightly higher attendance numbers than the NBA and the NHL. In the 2010-11 season, the average MLS attendance was 17,869, compared to 17,319 and 17,126 respectively (ESPN.com, 2011). With the expansion and globalization of the sport when traveling groups from Europe and South/Central America play United States teams (municipalities or the National team) in a "friendly" (exhibition match) or a World Cup qualifiers stateside, it is understood that supporter firms (hooligan gangs) will travel to support their team. Are hooligans simply looking for a violent result under the guise of being football supporters? "It's a lot more widespread than the general public realize. They might hear of one or two big incidences a year. But this thing happens week in week out at different grounds around England" (Hooligans: No one likes us, 2002). Collective behavior is the most apparent theoretic way to view these outbursts. This research however will examine this social phenomenon through symbolic interaction perspective as well.; The hooligan culture is embedded with symbols of social disorder and rebellion. Racism, xenophobia homophobia and even patriotism are the tent poles of this social phenomenon. Additionally, from firm (gang) to firm (gang), socially constructed deviance such as rival history, improper police conduct, the media and alcohol are overarching factors. The final facet of the research examines how to curb the violence. Since Hooliganism is surprisingly tactical in and of itself, how authorities can potentially identify trouble makers and anticipate violence will be assessed. Since the English have customarily been deemed by the international community as some of the worst cohort participants, the tactics that authorities abroad have utilized (successful and otherwise) will be evaluated. Recommendations to prevent and combat this problem will be made in the hopes that a proactive approach can be developed domestically.

Ice hockey is seen as a rough sport. Sometimes situations tend to become too violent and players now and then get suspended for their acts on the ice. In very unusual cases the legal system has been forced to step in and prosecute players for situations on the ice. This is the case with Jakob Lilja. The purpose of this essay is therefore to seek answers on how two Swedish tabloids have framed Lilja and how the news coverage has changed during this time. The theory used in the study makes it possible to highlight how Lilja has been framed in the tabloids and it also gives the study the opportunity to further explain how Lilja has been portrayed. The scientific method used in this study has been a critical discourse analysis to be able to study the 43 articles included in the analysis in a qualitative manner. The study shows that the news coverage from the case has changed during the course of the time. The early coverage shows the framing of Lilja as an ice hockey player while the latter coverage more frame him as a criminal. But there are differences. The different tabloids have framed the case in different ways and the study shows that one of them has framed Lilja more than the other.