Assignment 1: Go into groups of 2-3 an read the text and answer the questions below the text
My name is Andy Nicholls, and for 30 years, I was an active football hooligan following Everton Football Club.
I was classified as a Category C risk to the authorities. I'm not bragging, but that is as high as you can get. I have served prison sentences for my involvement, and I've been deported from countries all over Europe and banned from attending football matches at home and abroad more times than I can remember. I will tell you another thing: When I was bang at it, I loved every f-----g minute of it. I have done most things in life—stayed in the best hotels all over the world, drunk the finest champagne and taken most drugs available. Nothing, however, comes close to being in your own mob when it goes off at the match, and I mean nothing. I say "mob" because that's what we were—a nasty one, too. Today's firms, gangs, crews—call them what you want—have missed the boat big time. We were about when it mattered; when the day wasn't wrapped up by police and CCTV, or ruined because those you wanted to fight just wanted to shout and dance about but do not much else, like many of today's rival pretenders do. We were there when you could get hurt—hurt very badly, sometimes even killed. Yes, it happened; on occasions, we killed each other. Football hooliganism in my day was a scary pastime. People ask, "What made you become such a violent hooligan?" Simple answer: the buzz. In my day, there was nothing else to do that came close to it. No Xbox, internet, theme parks or fancy hobbies. Football was one of the only hobbies available to young, working-class kids, and at the football, you were either a hunter or the hunted. I became a hunter. I looked for trouble and found it by the lorry load, as there were literally thousands of like-minded kids desperate for a weekly dose of it. Like a heroin addict craves for his needle fix, our fix was football violence. There were times when I thought to myself, give it up. Usually when I was in court, looking at another jail sentence—or, on one occasion, when I stood alongside a mate who was clutching his side, preventing his kidney from spewing out of his body after being slashed wide-open when things came on top in Manchester. Those things happened. I'm not moaning about it; we gave more than we took. Questions 1) How would you describe Andys attitude to his 30 year long life as a hooligan? Find examples in the text! 2) What would you say is the main reason that he has been doing it for so long? Find examples in the text! 3) How does he feel about the potential danger of hooliganism? How dangerous does he describe it? Find examples in the text! 4) How does Andy describe the hooliganism of today? Why? |
Assignment 2: Watch the youtube video and answer the questions below.
Questions
1) Are there any similarities between the two men and their motivation for Hooliganism? What similarities? 2) What do you think the word "Buzz" means? 3) Can violence be an addiction? Why/why not? |