From Repression to Prevention in Central Europe: Football Anti-Hooligan Policies in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia.

This article discusses Central European football hooliganism from the comparative perspective of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, and characterizes the nature of, and responses to, football hooliganism in the post-communist period. It argues that the less repressive and more preventive nature of football anti-hooligan policies is a direct result of Europeanization and internationalization. These processes impacted domestic legislative frameworks concerning the EU acquis as well as football hooliganism, allowed for creation of new domestic bodies, and influenced the states toward innovative agendas and cooperation frameworks. The regional analysis is warranted due to the shared communist legacy of the Visegrád Group (V4), filling the research gap that exists on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]