The world of soccer between stereotypes and fan profiling

Soccer is a game, but also a social phenomenon. As Simon Kuper said, 'when billions of people care about a game, it stops being just a game'. With this new sport, the idea of dispassionate cheering and support for one's hometown team has also spread, synonymous with a sense of belonging to one's homeland. In order to understand the phenomenon of organized supporters, it is necessary to put aside the prejudices and stereotypes that see a veil of violence and ignorance around this world. Through this study, supported by various bibliographic sources, newspaper articles, websites and field surveys, we have investigated the phenomenon in order to better understand its origins, its diffusion and the internal links within the groups that lead most of the public opinion to consider the so-called "Hooligans" as hooligans and troublemakers. The parochialism behind the violent events, the mentality and the hierarchies were examined. The aim of the study was twofold: to verify the knowledge and opinions of a selected sample about the social phenomenon analyzed, also in relation to macro topics such as the relationship with organized crime and political extremism, and to outline a profiling of the organized fan.