单项选择题

Undoubtedly the most damaging aspect of our football at the moment is hooliganism (流氓行为). Other facets of the matter may be debated; this violence is solely harmful. Mr. Dennis Follows, when he was a secretary of the Football Association, diagnosed it accurately, though his suggested remedy was obviously unacceptable when he advocated the banning of spectators under the age of eighteen from football grounds.
His idea was rejected for valid human reasons. Saturday has replaced the old Sunday morning as the working man’s time of glory. The football match, core of Saturday, is, for many orderly youthful citizens as well as the unruly, the compensation for a week of monotonous, depressing work and, often, disappointing family life. Mr. Follows identified the specifically disruptive adolescent element.
On the other hand, many of his critics appeared to think that the youngsters in question were simply football followers enthusiastically supporting their own teams. If that were the whole matter it would be relatively easy to adjust: but it is not. Apparently it is not generally realized that many of these young men drink heavily on their football match "day out". The youngest of them — quite early teenagers — can be seen buying drink in the public-houses near many of the large grounds; it is simpler, safer, and more profitable for publicans (酒馆老板) to serve them than to ask their age or refuse. It may be accepted from one who has now twice been forced to defend himself against their mindless violence, that a mob of drunken fifteen or sixteen-year-olds is frighteningly illogical, unpredictable, and potentially violent.
A significant statistic of public reaction shows that in a recent year Boxing attendances at League matches were 300,000 lower than in the previous year. This, on a fine day for the season, could not be explained away by the postponement of one Second and one Fourth Division match, the general quality of play, or competition from television.
The effect of hooliganism is almost certainly wider than has generally been accepted. It is not limited to driving away spectators who used to watch from the terraces, who are not prepared to take the risk of violence there, but cannot afford grandstand (正面看台) seats. It is increasingly clear that a considerable number of people, who used to travel by train to "their" team’s away matches, or from areas without first-class football, no longer do so because of the atmosphere created by young "supporters" in trains and at railway stations.

What does the word "supporters" refer to in the last sentence of the last paragraph（）

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