At the risk of being branded a “trouble-making minority” of one, might I soberly suggest that the continuing riot of self-righteousness after the trouble in Manchester has been a bit over the top? I am no fan of Glasgow Rangers supporters, but the bashing they have received suggests that class prejudice today is not aimed at “toffs” alone.

Yes, we saw some ugly-looking skirmishes between 60 of Manchester's finest riot cops and a couple of hundred beery Rangers fans, after a big screen showing the Uefa Cup Final broke down. But 40-odd arrests from an estimated crowd of at least 100,000 sounds like a quietish night in Glasgow. The BBC website's morning-after photos, headlined “Manchester trashed”, mostly showed the city's streets covered in, er, trash.

Yet the reaction has been to ban big screens from Manchester for the Champions League Final tomorrow, and postpone any victory parade should United win. (Chelsea have also been barred from parading through London the next day.) Meanwhile, everybody from Gordon Brown downwards has weighed in to condemn Rangers fans as not real supporters/Scots/human beings.

It all goes to show the love-hate relationship we have with The Crowd today. In a fragmented society where many yearn to be part of something bigger, football is a focus of the search for some Shared National Experience. Why else did so many Glaswegians travel to Manchester to watch the match on a telly, or the entire population of Portsmouth turn out to see the FA Cup on a bus? This use of the “football factor” to bring us together has been officially encouraged.

But at the same time, we don't want a passionate crowd to behave like one, getting drunk and out of hand. We want a 100,000-strong church congregation. Hence Mr Brown's post-Manchester suggestions to ban booze on match days and ensure only fans with tickets travel to host cities. Good luck with policing that one.

Rowdy football crowds have long been a target of respectable fears. In 1898, one writer recoiled in horror from “football madness” and crowds behaving “in a manner that made him thankful murder was illegal”. Many of us recall football “aggro” from the 1970s and 80s far worse than anything today. Indeed, the Manchester footage stands out because it is so rare. Yet in our insecure age it seems one outbreak is enough to convince many that the barbarians are besieging the gates without a ticket. Never mind banning big screens, there are now calls to ban nasty football altogether.

If there is one thing worse than some middle-aged men in football shirts behaving like boorish yobs, perhaps it is a nation behaving like neurotic old biddies in response.

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