Hooligan remedy: Bring back cane

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 48

Hooligan remedy: Bring back cane

NZPA London An English soccer star, Trevor Brooking, has a remedy for crowd hooliganism: Bring back the cane. In his autobiography published yesterday, the West Ham and England midfielder, sees the suggestion as a possible answer to the hooliganism which he believes is a symptom of present day society rather than a mere football problem. “I am not an advocate of corporal punishment but the cane will have to be used again in schools if this trend is to be reversed,” says Brooking. Brooking reveals that he stood on the West Ham terraces with bis father as a 10-year-old, but would not let his own son do the same today. Having visited many different schools in London’s East End over the last few years coaching boys of all ages, Brooking says he has been “appalled by the standard of behaviour” at many of them.

“Respect for authority seems to have disappeared and it must be very hard for teachers to do their work in this environment,” he says. He writes of boys being rude to teachers, uninterested in their lessons and of continual back-chat during lessons.

Attending the launching of the book in London yesterday, Brooking admitted that his ideas on corporal punishment in schools would not be popular in many quarters and did not expect they would be taken up. “It is a personal opinion, but having seen the lack of respect for authority at so many levels I can’t help thinking it might be the answer,” he said.