The CPS against English fans’ freedom of expression

Erling Haaland’s brace in Manchester City’s Premier League opener against Burnley distracted public debate in Britain a question something more important, which also applied in the days before: English and Welsh fans are no longer allowed to enter a stadium if they are caught making fun of – or making fun of – the ‘football’ tragedies of the past (e.g. Hillsborough ). The scrutiny and potential sanctions come under the oversight of the most troubling judicial body the UK has ever produced: the Crown Prosecution Service or CPS, an acronym for bad luck for old and dear England fans.

To be honest, all of this is shocking and is related – or even analogously – to the ban on our house at number 88. It has to be said that we Italians always manage to win the battle between the absurd and the senseless, especially at the criminal level, but the British were no different in this case. Actually the ban choirs, At banner and further banner The dark humor genre (let’s sum it up like this) is about something more disturbing than the one on eighty-eight. In fact, in the latter case it would be more appropriate to speak of idiocy than concern, but in this case the discussion is entirely different.

Banning a chorus, a banner or any other form of expression is in itself dystopian regime stuff Orwellian novel or Pasolini’s denunciation. Doing this in a context where, to paraphrase Massimo Fini, “let off steam” is a powerful societal tool against real violence (that in the streets, to put it bluntly, that that takes place outside the stadiums, against one another to understand), but is even paradoxical. However, we are now convinced that in England the fans of the past are gone, despite all the efforts we can make to find in a Superliga league the crumbs of a movement (the hooligan movement) eaten away by time . And through some legislation, like this and worse than this – think of the amazing Thatcher methods introduced right after Hillsborough, among others – which first killed and then tamed the rioters in the UK stadiums.

The consequences of the crime were promoted and advocated by the head of the Football Association with the full support of the English government as obviousare unbelievable: the most serious ban is the one already mentioned, i.e. a ban from entering the stadium (the times are then set by the CPS), but most dystopian is entering pubs “while games are happening” (during the game).

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