SCOTTISH devolution has helped to fuel hooliganism among English football fans, according to an expert from Glasgow University.
Bert Moorhouse, director of the research unit in football studies, said it had left many English people in a state of confusion and without a sense of national identity — which had helped to spark violence like that in Portugal this week.
“With issues like immigration and Scotland and Wales getting devolution it is a troubling time to be an Englishman,” he said yesterday. “They are now less secure in who they are. This is one of the reasons why they are a lot more riotous than the Germans and the Dutch.”
Mr Moorhouse, 60, who is originally from England, said that violence was now “traditional and almost expected” of England fans. “Hooliganism is no longer confined to skinheads off the building site; it’s very much a lifestyle choice for some people,” he said.