Attributions for the rioters ' behaviour include social factors such as racial tension , class tension , economic decline and the unemployment that it had brought , as well as individual factors like criminality , hooliganism , the breakdown of social morality and the development of gang culture .

The game was played Competition against the backdrop of escalating football hooliganism ; English clubs had been banned Preventing_or_letting from European competition Competition as a result of the Heysel Stadium disaster over three months prior , and fears were being raised Bringing , notably by Scotland 's manager Jock Stein , that the British government , led Giving by Margaret Thatcher , was seeking to lead Change a `` crackdown '' on football supporters generally , and that trouble at the highly charged Judgment_communication game at Ninian Park would give Giving them an excuse to extend Change_event_time this from just England to the other Home Nations .