[dfwgator]

Thatcher deserves a lot of credit for forcing the clubs to take measures to get rid of the hooligans.

But of course, as typical, many hated her for that, because of the fact that with the increased spending and ticket prices that came with the Premier League, it ceased to be the game of the “Working Class.”

[RayChuang88]

I think English football's association with the "working class" and the hooliganism that goes along with it (stadiums were also falling apart in the 1980's and violence between fans were very common) came to a head with the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 that killed 93 people. It was the shock of that tragedy--as described in the Taylor Report published in its final form in January 1990--that forced many, many changes in English football, starting with much stricter crowd control and a switch to all-seater stadium configuration. As such, famous stadiums such as Manchester United's Old Trafford are very different stadiums in 2014 compared to even the 1980's.