i found this about the book ,
"Back in football's golden age of the eighties when Stadiums were real traditional grounds with atmopshere; when pies and not burgers were on offer and when tickets cost a £5, every fan had a copy of the Shoot annual and a half filled Panini sticker album at home on a shelf. These early reading materials were the bible's of our childhood; the recent renaissance and re-release of the Shoot annual shows that many of us wish we had kept the real thing when we were given them all those years ago.
These days pointers towards ownership of the title of 'bible of the Football literature world' extends further than any Rothmans Football Yearbook, Shoot annual or any fashionable football hooliganism exploration effort of Cass Pennant. From the 1990's onwards and even through the ground breaking All Played Out through to Fever Pitch and the modern day The Dammed United, great Football Novels have been arguably thin on the ground.
French author Laurent Mauvignier's In the Crowd has recently been mentioned in the same breath as Peace's stream of Consciousness soon to be movied Clough era effort. But whilst The Damned United seeks to portray Clough's individual point of view by exporing his complex character's thought processes in a loose monologue (and in connection to his sensory reactions to external football occurrences) Mauvignier's effort chooses instead to concentrate on the emotions of the Heysel Stadium disaster that killed 39 spectators after a wall collapsed during the Liverpool - Juventus European Cup final in Brussels in May 1985.
A number of voices are heard in every page as the agonised retrospect surrounding the the charge by Liverpool fans that leaves one of the main characters dead and the rest "unable to free" themselves unfolds. In the aftermath of tragedy, our characters are placed amongst a gritty story that is more than simply a ghost written documentary catharthic blow out about hooliganism that so much of modern football writing can be. Yes, football's masculinity and group aggressions are evident but Mauvignier chooses to conjure up the demons of fandom in a different way than British authors such as Brimson and King have.
As with any football match anywhere in Europe, the book sees very different Europeans making their way to Brussels for the European Cup final in 1985 not knowing what history has now told us; that of the ill-fated Heysel Stadium disaster. Specifically our characters are a pair of beery, footie-mad lads from Paris Jeff and Tonino who venture to Brussels for the game. In Brussels, they meet a local Belgian couple, Gabriel and Virginie, and newly-married lovebirds Tana and Francesco from Genoa.
Three brothers from Liverpool intimidate their fellow-travellers as they make the pilgrimage to watch their beloved team play Juventus in the cup final. Our English characters are Geoff Andrewson he of "everyone wants to blame the Scousers" views and the self doubting reluctant fan on a trip from Merseyside with his two brothers to see Liverpool play La Vecchia Signora.
Laurent Mauvignier’s devastating portrait of one of European football’s worst and most notorious tragedy and its bitter hateful aftermath has long been a big hit on bookshop shelves in France which may surprise many in the United Kingdom. Switching briskly from character to character and capturing and portaying the changeable mood of a football crowd, Mauvignier explores what all football fans have seen but rarely experienced as those at Heysel in 1985 did. Giddy big match excitement that we all feel quickly turns to fear and confusion as out teams loses. This time however the fear and confusion is more than a result or the pain of a heavy defeat when a section of Liverpool supporters charge the fans on the terrace, forcing fans to flee back against a wall that collapsed, horrifically and fatally killing 39 football loving supporters.
In football terms the reality of the aftermath of Heysel was a long term ban from European Club football for Liverpool and all other English club sides. In the Crowd goes further by exploring that aftermath we have seldom read or heard about other than during 2005 when the anniversary of the Heysel disater was remembered and recalled. That of the impact on individuals, notably self-loathing Liverpool fans who still serve to maintain a guilt-ridden innocence, and the emotions of grief-stricken Italian supporters of whom we lost so many in Brussels, are explored.
Football hooliganism, like football in general (outwith our so called bible titles noted above) is a subject that is never really adequately covered by serious writers. Modern day titles such as Top Boys or Euro Trashed by Dougie Brimson refer and choose to explore self-glorifying modern day organised thuggery, fashions and hooliganism. Whilst these have a rightful place amongst the games history, it is often left to dry-mouthed academics to pad out these books with sociological theory and justification behind the fashion when it would be best to leave the voices and vivid image portrayal to those that truly know best; the perpetrators themselves. In the Crowd though explores much more measured themes amid the horror, thoughtlessness and inhumanity that was a football stadium disaster.
Heysel in 1985 shocked a whole generation, and it is only in the post-hooligan era of the modern age that such emotions can be explored in Laurent Mauvignier’s characters. Today, just as in 1985, people come from all over Europe to see the final Champions League match as a means of exploring fandom, loyalty or simply a love of the game. It is doubtful that such as a tragedy will occur again which makes Mauvigniers powerful pages of the imagination so unique. "
