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By defining match days and football grounds as times and places in which fighting could be engaged in and aggressive forms of masculinity displayed, the media, especially the national tabloid press, played a part of some moment in stimulating and shaping the development of soccer hooliganism (p. 122).

Murphy et al., (1990), believe that the amount of publicity given to the superhooligan groups and their leaders increased the membership ranks with "hardcases and other socio-pathic nutters" (Murphy et al., 1990, p. 168), who were not previously involved with soccer hooliganism.

The media was not only engaged in reporting and predicting soccer superhooliganism, but it also led the call for remedial action against the soccer thugs. However, the media-advocated policy measures introduced to combat soccer superhooliganism "tended to displace the disorder on to the streets outside football grounds, sometimes at considerable distances from them, rather than to eradicate it" (Murphy et al., 1990, p. 122).

Involvement by the media in soccer hooliganism included publishing their own ‘league tables of hooligan notoriety.' The Daily Mail September, 1986, ran a headline, "Chelsea tops thugs league" Murphy (1990), or, the Evening Standard had a center spread page on July 29, 1985, which read, "London league of violence" Murphy et al., (1990). The impact these articles have had on the reader depends on individual motivations. Superhooligans view the publicity as validating their activity. When an article is published, identifying the Chelsea Headhunters as the top superhooligan group, other superhooligans view this as a challenge to knock Chelsea off of the top spot.

The root causes of present-day soccer superhooliganism are deep and complex. Newspapers, in particular the tabloid press, "have made a contribution of some significance to the rise of present-day hooliganism and to giving it its distinctively contemporary form" (Murphy et al., 1990, p. 124). Articles featuring stories on superhooligan group leaders, although not necessarily condoning them, rarely condemned their activities either. The press undoubtedly contributed to the "intensification of the status competition between rival hooligan groups" (Murphy et al., 1990, p. 124), and the tabloid press has been responsible for feature stories portraying superhooligan leaders as prosperous and from middle class backgrounds. Exaggeration on the part of the press, according to Canter (1989), further sensationalized the leaders concerned, which consequently attracted to superhooliganism some ‘non-typical' hooligan types. That the popular press is responsible for aiding and abetting the soccer superhooliganism phenomenon by its extensive and sensationalized coverage is patently obvious. The press could have played a key role in diffusing the soccer hooligan movement during its early stages - but it chose instead to use hooliganism to sell papers and, consequently, led in the emergence and establishment of Britian's soccer super-hooligans.

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