Charakter prawny zakazu stadionowego jako środka kontroli społecznej w ustawodawstwie brytyjskim
Football Banning Orders (FBO) as a method of social control in British legislation

Summary/Abstract: The issue of football hooliganism has been for many years a major cause of concern throughout almost all European countries, particularly in UK, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Holland and in Poland. Today the European stadiums seem to be free from any kind of spectator violence, but it does not mean that football hooliganism disappeared. The implementation of different forms of counter hooliganism policies, which can be observed in European countries since the mid-1980s, created a complex of web of interactions between so-called football hooligans and social control agents and institutions, and caused transformations in strategies and methods of actions employed by football supporters targeted. Football Banning Orders (FBO) are now a central component of this – above-mentioned – counter hooliganism policies in many European countries. FBO are often introduced as a instrument which has played the determining role in the reduction of spectator violence at football matches. The Football Banning Orders – which allowed the court to control the freedom of movement of targeted population of so-called football hooligans – was first introduced in 1986 in UK, and during the mid-1980s- mid-1980s through 1990s started to spread across Europe. Apart from Italy, where football bans were administrative in their nature from the beginning (i.e. from 1989), in other European countries football bans were initially imposed by the courts only to the person convicted of football-related violence, playing the role of additional penalty. In 2000 the UK Parliament introduced the Football (Disorder) Act, which – for the first time – allowed the court to impose the FBO in the absence of any criminal conviction, which contributed to dramatic increase in the number of FBO imposed by UK courts. On the other hand the statistics show that at the same time where the UK courts started to use FBO in the absence of criminal conviction, there can be observed the decline in the level of disorder caused by English supporters abroad. The apparent assumption – willingly used by political agenda – shall be critically analyzed, as one realizes that applicable both nationally and abroad, the FBO entail a series of constraints – which shall be analyzed for the threat it poses to the basic civil and human rights and under their justification in the light of the principle of proportionality. In fact these constraints relate to football supporters, who have not been convicted of any offence. This paper provides a critical analysis of UK legislation on Football Banning Orders and its role in the reduction of football hooliganism at international matches involving English fans including the important questions about the type of procedure (i.e. criminal or civil) used by the courts in FBO’s application, the legal nature and legal purpose of this component (i.e. is the FBO preventive or punitive in nature).

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