World Cup football made an auspicious debut in North America during the summer of 1994. From most perspectives it was a resounding success. Commercial interests profited while American audiences, historically indifferent to the sport, were sufficiently roused to follow theAmerican team until its eventual loss to Brazil (Wilson, 1994). The next few years will tell if interest will be sustained or simply slip back to pre-Cup levels.
Most notable was the absence of violence from the competition. Concerned with football's reputation for fan disorders, the organizers went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that violence would not mar the event. Legions of riot-trained police and security personnel stood idle throughout the competition and as a result, organizers were credited with devising a successful strategy for crowd control, one likely to be the blueprint for security at future Cup sites. (Of course, a minimal security force might have produced the same result.)
Unfortunately, the primary association of most people to the word "football" is violence and brings to mind images of young fans fighting in the stadium or rioting in the streets of the host community. If one legacy of the World Cup is an increased American interest in the sport, then this new audience stands to gain a richer appreciation of the complexities surrounding football violence with a reading of this book. University of Aberdeen sociologist