Panorama Michael Church Many people find football violence exciting. Guilty middle- class socialists ioved it in the sixties. Sociologists have long made territorial claims on it. The media have, frankly, thriven upon it. So wvas Charles Wheeler's inaugural Panorama simply following the trend ? No. F-Troop Treatment and the Haljf-Uay Line. wvhich looked at the rules and values prevalent among the terrace gangs at Milliall, was a serious and subtle piece of reporting which the BBC wvould be wvise to build on. David Taylor, the reporter, quickly established what the Millwall supporters were interested in. Their team (not the players, stupid) were nationally known as "hard ". You wave your scarf and cheer but the real thing, the ritual, is to do a few geezers. " People are frightened of us all over England." From the Half-Way Line you graduate, if I understoad it correctiy, to Treatment and from thence to the really violent F-Troop. Police fines, which you may not pay, act as rungs on the ladder. You are fiercely loyal, fiercely xenophobic fiercely protective of your good name as a fearless fighter. You may call yourself Harry the Dog and carry out solo kamikaze raids on stands full of enemy sup- porters. You may get hurt or arrested but you are invincibly jolly. In fact, inside many of these fans there seems to be a soldier stiuggling to get out. Disgusted of Eastbourne's repeated cries for more conscription might fall on willing ears just south of the river. And here we came to it. A chubby National Front leader, on whose lips the word "'robust" acquired a sick and sinister tone, pronounced his thoughtful verdict. "There's a lot you can do wNith a soccer hooligan." Patriotic, pro- Biitish youngsters . . . and the club manager, who needs big gates to pay for his newv rentre forward, talks of driving the hooligans away. We were told, in a postscript, that more money is to be spent in Millwall on participatory sport for the fans: excellent. But nobody mentioned further education. The soldiers may indeed have to go and find themselves a wvar, but some among their confreres. earnest Mick, or driven Billy, need to go and find a college. Panorama BBC 1