86 captures

28 Nov 1999 - 17 Feb 2020

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About this capture

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Organization: Alexa Crawls

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Collection: 42_crawl

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TIMESTAMPS

            

    Italy - England Rome 1997

British Hooligan Scene
Britain, and in particular England, has always been seen as the home of football violence and many believe it's Britain's best export. Violence at football matches has been around since the creation of football but started to become more common place in the 1960's in Britain. By this time travel around the country became much more easier and young men had more money in their pockets to enable them to start following their team. The 60's saw rival groups of fans trying to take each other's ends and Saturday afternoons in the Shed at Chelsea were spent more with battling rival fans, than actually watching the match itself.
The 60's and 70's did actually see some of the worst violence at football matches and it was also the era of the skinhead. Some of the worst incidents of the 70's involved the infamous Red Army who followed Manchester United around the country, some of the incidents they were involved in would not be tolerated in today's society (see 'The Red Army Years' in the book reviews section).
Football hooliganism in Britain, as we know it now, began to take shape in the early 1980's with the birth of the Casual and 'Firms' and 'Crews'. The papers every weekend were full of reports on violence involving this new phenomenon and virtually every club up and down the country had some kind of hooligan following. These new groups would have stupid names like the 'Billy Whizz Fan Club' - Bolton, 'The Zulu Warriors' - Birmingham City and so on (see tables below).
Probably one of the most famous clubs for hooliganism is Millwall and though they have tried to clean up their act over the years they have always seemed to attract some kind of hooligan element, having had their ground closed down on a number of occasions as well as being heavily fined by the FA for incidents involving their fans. They were the subject of a Panorama documentary in the early 1970's which first brought them to the attention of the general public, even though their fans had been causing trouble since the 1930's. Millwall's biggest rivals has always been West Ham United, and these two clubs have been involved in some of the most violent incidents at football with a number of deaths having occurred during these disturbances. West Ham themselves were the subject of another documentary in the mid 1980's when their 'Inter City Firm' starred in a documentary called 'Hooligan'. This is probably the best documentary ever made on football hooliganism and made the ICF famous over night, through the programme showed them coming of second best on a visit to Manchester United, though they were heavily outnumbered in that incident.
The casual era, which evolved around 1980, saw the hooligans start to wear designer labels and expensive sportswear so as not to attract the attention of police and no club colours were worn so it was easier to infiltrate rival groups as well as gain access to pubs etc. as the police were still on the look out for skinheads wearing Doc Martin boots and didn't pay attention to the lads in the expensive designer gear. Over the years incidents have occurred between rival groups which have led to a violent rivalry with each group trying to out do the other. Some of biggest rivalries are between the London clubs, West Ham and Millwall as mentioned above, Spurs and Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs etc. Other big rivalries are Manchester United and Manchester City, Portsmouth and Southampton, Newcastle and Sunderland and Middlesborough, Manchester United and West Ham, Birmingham and Aston Villa, Cardiff and Swansea, Leeds United and Manchester United the list is endless and not just confined to local rivals.
As mentioned earlier football violence has probably been Britain's best export and not just confined to these shores. One of the first incidents involving English club fans abroad was in Rotterdam in 1974 when Spurs played Feyenoord in Uefa Cup Final and Spurs fans were involved in riots in Rotterdam, this was seen as a big influence on the Dutch hoolie scene. Violence abroad involving English football fans has just increased since then. Whenever and wherever the English national team play they always have a group of lads following them who are ready to mix it with the locals and in my opinion the English are probably still the top lads in Europe even though they have come of second best a few times. At every major tournament you can bet on the English being involved in some kind of disorder. Countries like Poland seem to think that they are the number one hooligans because they have come of best in exchanges with England fans in their own country, but they seem to forget that they have to travel to matches occasionally and prove themselves abroad. The violence reached it's peak in 1985 with the Heysel disaster leading to English clubs being banned from Europe, eventually they were readmitted in 1990. By this time other countries had the same hooligan problem that England had suffered for years and supporters of England and English club sides found themselves the targets for thugs from other countries when they travelled abroad.
Euro '96, held in England, turned out to be a big embarrassment to all the other nations especially the Germans who all failed to take any kind of mob to the Championships, in fact Scotland were the only country to take a mob through to England. Scotland took a mob of about 350-400 casuals (see pic on right) through to the match against England during Euro '96 and though they were heavily policed throughout the day the did all right in the few exchanges with the English and at one point managed to escape the police at Trafalgar Square and attack English lads drinking in The Imperial Pub near Leicester Square. The only other trouble of note during these Championships was the night when England were knocked out of the Championships by Germany, and serious rioting took place all over the country and especially in London (see pic below left).
The English are not the only country with casual firms, as mentioned above the Scottish also have casual hooligan groups, the main one's being Aberdeen and Hibernian. Both these clubs could attract mobs of 300+ for matches in the mid 1980's though a police crackdown on them and also the casual scene becoming unfashionable had drastic effects on their numbers, though both can still pull good mobs when required, only 2 seasons ago Aberdeen took a mob of  80 to a pre season game at Rotherham and were involved in disturbances with Sheffield United lads after the match  when they returned to Sheffield where they were staying for the weekend. Hibs also have been involved in serious disturbances in England, most notably when they took a mob of 200 to a pre season fixture at Millwall and clashed with rival fans. Hibs casuals have also been involved in trouble abroad at matches against Standard Liege and Anderlecht in Uefa cup ties. Scottish casuals were also involved in trouble in Utrecht, Holland in 1994 when casuals from a number of different clubs joined together, mainly Aberdeen and Hibs, and followed Scotland to a friendly match against Holland, resulting in 49 Scottish lads being arrested. Over the years there has been a number of links between English and Scottish club sides, the most well known being Chelsea and Rangers, though it's still debatable whether this friendship still exists, Spurs and Aberdeen also have a freindship, and a few Aberdeen also have contacts with Huddersfield, Stoke and Dundee also have a friendship, as do Hibs and Oldham and recently a friendship between Hibs and Manchester United has developed with rumours that 30 Hibs casuals were present at a Liverpool - Manchester United fixture in Liverpool in September 1999.
Hooliganism is not just confined to the big clubs, some of the best mobs are attached to some of the lower league sides, Millwall as mentioned earlier play in the 2nd Division, Manchester City and Portsmouth have good firms and play in the 1st Division and clubs such as Stoke, Plymouth, Carlisle, Bristol City etc all have good firms as well. The Welsh also have clubs with a reputation, with Cardiff being the main one though Swansea do have quite a good mob as well. Cardiff fans have been involved in numerous incidents over the years, one of the worst being as recent as August 1999 when Cardiff city centre was turned in to a battleground as rival Cardiff and Millwall fans fought running battles with each other and the police. Police believed that this trouble may have been arranged over the Internet and by using mobile phones.
The above was just a brief history of the British hooligan scene though I probably would have enough material to fill a book on it. The tables below show the names of some of the hooligan groups from England and Scotland.

English & Welsh Hooligan Groups