British snobs and baton-wielding police officers in continental Europe have something in common. Both share a low opinion of English football fans. The cliché goes that football is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, the reverse of rugby. Really, this caricature belongs to another era. English football has cleaned itself up in the process of becoming the world’s most popular cultural form. Now, over a million people attend football matches every week in the UK, with very little trouble given the enormous numbers. But there are nagging fears that the game has lost its soul along the way. Today (22 March), Arsenal will play Manchester City in Wembley Stadium in the League Cup final. It...
