Football Hooligans And A Guide To The Biggest Football Firms

Attending a football match in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties could be a grim experience, with hooliganism so prevalent. Known as the ‘English Disease’ but commonplace in most countries, fighting among rival supporters uglified the beautiful game and repeatedly brought shame upon the sport.

In the UK the situation reached a nadir around1985 when the government of the day openly discussed the introduction of electrified fences in grounds. This was partly in response to a large-scale riot when Millwall travelled to Luton for a FA Cup match.

Around the same period the Times ran with an editorial that deemed football, ‘a slum sport played in slum stadiums and increasingly watched by slum people’.

With the forming of the Premier League, all-seater stadia, and a more family-friendly culture now the norm it is tempting to believe that hooliganism is a relic of the past, and it’s certainly true to say it has declined dramatically in the modern era.

Sadly though, it still remains, no longer an over-riding problem but instead lurking in the shadows, making rare appearances in public as and when.

We only need go back to the Euro 2020 final and the storming of Wembley by ticketless, drunken England fans for evidence of that.

Will football ever be completely free of the scourge of hooliganism? To better understand it can only help this somewhat implausible aspiration become more of a reality.

Football Hooligans History

Football hooliganism dates back as far as the Middle Ages and the behaviour, and motivations behind such behaviour, very much resonate with matchday violence witnessed in our lifetime.

Groups of youths would travel to a neighbouring town, under the conceit of watching an organised match, and fight with one another.

In 1349, King Edward III banned football due to its propensity to cause civil unrest.

This idea of ‘invading’ another town, or ‘defending’ a town against invaders, lies at the heart of hooligan culture. It is tribal. It is devised warfare.

“At the football, you were either the hunter or the hunted,” wrote Andy Nicholls, a former hooligan, now an author of several books on the subject.

“Hooliganism typically involves a firm or club loyalist gang actively working to intimidate supporters of a club that their club is playing.

The fighting usually happens away from the stadium to avoid being immediately arrested and the idea is to chase off the supporters or to “run them off.”

Across the centuries, little has changed.

The Rise and Decline of British Hooliganism

In the United Kingdom, hooliganism worsened significantly in the ’70s, when firms such as the Red Army (Manchester United), Suicide Squad (Burnley), Villa Hardcore (Aston Villa), and the Herd (Arsenal) started to organise on mass.

By the middle of the decade, virtually every football club in Great Britain had a firm attached to it.

However, it wasn’t until 1974 when it broke into the national consciousness.

When Manchester United dropped to the English Football League’s Second Division the Red Army started attacking in force, letting out their frustrations and aggression across the country.

In that same year too, in Bolton, Lancashire, the first fatality occurred, an event so shocking that it prompted fences to be erected in some grounds and crowd segregation to be introduced.

Twelve months later Spurs and Chelsea fans fought on the pitch and Britain began to wake to the realisation that hooliganism was not an issue that could be swept under the carpet. Serious measures were needed.

One such course of action saw ‘football specials’ become commonplace, trains that were solely allocated for away fans. This allowed the police to wait in large numbers for the train’s arrival, whereupon the supporters could be escorted to the ground.

In theory, this was a good idea, and perhaps to an extent it worked. Ultimately though, hooligans simply made their way to their club’s next fixture independently.

In 1985 tragic events at Heysel led to English clubs being banned from European competitions for five years while at home awful scenes played out in the Midlands between Birmingham and Leeds supporters. As a pitched battle was fought on the pitch a teenager lost his life.

All of which, and more, led to the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher setting up a ‘war cabinet’ to combat the epidemic. The ‘English disease’ was making football sick.

Fast-forward to the early-Nineties and – as stated above – the founding of the Premier League and the requirement of all-seater stadiums helped change the dial greatly, transforming the culture of going to a game as much as anything.

Whereas previously a minority would grab a scarf, fuel themselves with alcohol, and go looking for trouble, now the standard pre-match rituals are distinctly different. Fans enjoy a pre-match pint (often singular) before indulging in some football betting on their phones. They grab something to eat and meet up with friends, enquiring how their extension is going. Typically they are accompanied by a son or daughter.

It is infinitely more sociable and infinitely less threatening.

Moreover, the hooligans of the ‘70s began to age, their outlook and priorities softening.

“When I had my first daughter and I got married I completely changed,” said Annis Abraham, the former leader of Cardiff City’s Soul Crew.

“It was unbelievable. My family became my life. Football used to be my life but it seemed irrelevant by comparison. I go to watch Cardiff every week but that’s only because my daughters love it so much.”

Declining Hooliganism Rates

As the overall rate of hooliganism has been in decline since the turn of the century in Great Britain, so have indicators of the most disruptive and distasteful parts of hooligan life: alcohol-related arrests, indecent chanting, and public and violent disorder.

However, not all forms of violence faded away.

In 2009, hooligans participated in a riot at a Football League Cup match between West Ham United and Millwall.

The clash was pre-planned and announced on internet message boards, leading to one man receiving multiple stab wounds and bystanders sustaining serious injuries. The pitch was intruded on several times during the game.

This incident corresponded to a sharp and temporary rise in hooliganism that prompted outright condemnation from some areas of the media. Others partly attributed the spike to a rise in unemployment, poverty, and social distress among under-19s following the Recession.

As disturbing as the above is, it demands context, that these days such instances are sporadic and rare, certainly in relation to previous decades.

According to released Gov.Uk figures, the 2023/24 season saw a record number of people attending games, 47 million all told.

From this colossal number there were just 2,563 arrests made. This equates to 5.5 arrests per 100,000 attendees.

Crucially too, the vast majority of these arrests were made for individual examples of public disorder (drunkenness, abuse, etc).

Trouble still exists on matchdays and this regrettably feels unavoidable given the sheer scale of numbers involved and the passion and tribalism the sport evokes.

The days of hooligans ‘hunting’ in packs however, lying in wait around each corner, is very much on the wane.

Collaring the Hooligans

What ultimately did for hooligans was a huge advancement in technology.

In the 21st century CCTV is everywhere, in grounds and covering most streets and public areas in nearby towns.

There is no longer any hiding places for their abhorrent activities and furthermore, with banning orders now the norm, swift and meaningful punishment usually follows.

Banning orders can last between three and 10 years. Violations of the order can result in six months’ imprisonment, a fine of £5,000, or both.

These two developments combined have allowed the police and authorities to finally gain the upper hand.

Alcohol and Football

The number of football-related arrests for alcohol and drug offences have thankfully decreased steadily in the 21st century. It now accounts for just 6% of arrests made.

Exceeding this figure are arrests made for possession of an illegal substance, rather than the behaviour it can lead to.

Still, it remains a significant problem, a societal one too.

For the record, Manchester United’s Premier League odds may be on the longish side these days following years of under-achievement, but they reluctantly top the table for arrests made for alcohol offences.

Newcastle and Sunderland come next, with Manchester City making it a very unwanted top four for the north.

Loud and Unruly

It is public disorder that accounts for a third of arrests made on matchdays and the clubs that have the highest rate of fans arrested for breaching the Public Order Act of 1986 include Manchester United, Arsenal, and Manchester City.

While fines and jail time are common sentences for serious public disorder charges, such as endangering the public or destroying property, most football public disorder arrests result in the temporary or permanent banning of the fan from attending a club’s game.

Those banned may be required to surrender their passports to the police whenever their clubs play abroad or face immediate arrest.

Fighting Firms

The clubs with the most fans arrested for violent disorder are typically the ones with the most active and infamous firms: Newcastle United, Chelsea, and both Manchester United and City.

While public disorder – which can range from throwing litter and public urination to pushing and shoving without the intent to harm – may result from heightened passions and an alcohol-fuelled lack of public modesty, violent disorder at football pitches is almost always seen as a sign of hooliganism.

The Crown Prosecution Service states within its code that they are ‘committed to taking a robust stance towards tackling football-related offending, including disorder, hooliganism and hate crime’.

Exploring the past

When covering firms from the past to the present day with the worst reputations for matchday violence there is always a danger of glamourising their behaviour. Let’s try not to do that here as we highlight some of the most feared collectives to ever prowl the terraces and the streets nearby to our football grounds.

The Most Infamous Firm in England

The Bushwackers, a hard-nosed firm that started as a group of East London dockworkers rooting for their local club Millwall, have repeatedly been at the forefront of hooligan culture.

In 1985 a hotly contested FA Cup match at Luton succumbed to pitched warfare as hundreds of the away contingent scaled fences and rained bottles, nails and coins upon the home crowd, terrifying families in the process.

There were multiple pitch invasions and fighting in the stands as a bloodied inter-firm battle took place between the Bushwackers, the Luton MIGs, the Chelsea Headhunters, and the West Ham United Inter City Firm.

Police dogs and horses eventually cleared the pitch but fighting continued as the match eventually commenced.

In 2009, incensed at having their ticket allocation halved in an attempt to reduce the threat of trouble, Millwall supporters turned up at Upton Park on mass. West Ham versus Millwall is by default a category A game, featuring two fan-bases that historically contain a notorious hooligan element. Moreover, they are hated rivals.

The ensuing violence and fighting resulted in 20 people getting injured and one stabbed. The pitch was invaded on three separate occasions.

Amidst the subsequent outrage, the Sports Minister at the time said, “We will not return to the dark days of the 80s.”

From 2010 to 2015, the Bushwackers were responsible for 248 arrests with 152 being for violent and public disorder offences. 64 Bushwackers are currently banned from attending Millwall games.

Strength in Numbers

The 1975 European Cup final between Leeds United and Bayern Munich has gone down in lore as a game accompanied by a huge dose of suspicion concerning decisions made by referee Michel Kitabdjian.

A perfectly good goal for the English side was disallowed along with two stonewall penalties declined.

Feeling cheated, Leeds’ infamous firm, the United Service Crew – so named because they tended to travel to away games in service trains in large numbers – ripped out seats and threw them onto the pitch, before fighting with the police in Paris,

Their brawling led to Leeds’ being banned from playing in Europe for four years.

Listed among the five worst firms by the BBC Six O’Clock News in 1985, the firm is unique in the extent that its club works to distance itself from the firm.

This is, in part, due to the fact that the firm’s actions in the 1970s and ’80s almost permanently crippled the team. The reality of the Paris incident is that Leeds would not play again in Europe until 1992.

By 1987, the team’s reputation was so bad that the team’s third-round game in that year’s FA Cup had to be held in neutral territory because the hosting Telford United refused to have Leeds fans in their stadium.

A Bloody Past

“I have never liked football and I never will,” said Mark Mennim, a former member of Newcastle United’s firm the Gremlins to the Chronicle Live. “I’ve had more fun paying my council tax, but I just loved the fighting.”

For the most part, the Gremlins are mostly a fixture of the past, with most of Newcastle United’s recent fan arrests being for alcohol-related issues.

But this doesn’t change the fact that some of English football’s bloodiest moments came at the hands of the Gremlins. In 2002, for example, the Gremlins clashed with Sunderland’s Seaburn Casuals in a scenario the BBC likened to a scene from the movie “Braveheart”.

According to reports following the fight, pools of blood were visible, one man was left permanently brain damaged, and scores of weapons were left scattered.

The Gremlins’ last major incident came in 2005. During an FA Cup match between Newcastle United and Coventry City, several men identifying as Gremlins attacked Coventry fans at a nearby pub. As of 2015, the Gremlins had 132 bans.

The Shed Boys

Chelsea’s Shed Boys were closely aligned with the mod culture that grew in prominence in the Sixties. Fashion was important, as important as looking for trouble on a Saturday afternoon. Think This Is England with a switchblade in its back pocket.

In due course the National Front infiltrated the ranks, and from this, over a long period of time, the firm morphed into the Chelsea Headhunters, one of the most racially motivated firms operating in the UK.

An abhorrent incident in 2015 brought their prejudices to the attention of social media when a black passenger on a Paris subway train was thrown off at a station. The delighted Headhunters involved filmed themselves singing ‘We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it’.

Four members of the firm were subsequently convicted of racist violence and given suspended prison sentences.

A Fight Among Welshmen

Cardiff City’s firm, the Soul Crew, is unique for a multitude of reasons.

First, there’s the name: a not-so-subtle recognition of the music the firm’s founders loved. It has been publicly alleged that Don Cornelius – producer and host of the American television show “Soul Train” – personally gave the firm his blessing to use the name.

Then, there’s the firm’s stance on racism. When one of the founders was discovered to be a white supremacist, he was ostracised and permanently excluded from the firm.

Finally, the Soul Crew is unique due to the firm’s primary focus.

The firm’s principal target is Swansea – a reflection of the animosity the fellow Welsh football team has historically shown for their uptown neighbours.

“Swansea hate Cardiff with a passion I couldn’t begin to explain,” said Tony Rivers, co-author of “Soul Crew” (Cardiff’s hooligan guide), as quoted by FourFourTwo.

Clearly, that hate is reciprocated.

Men In Black

There are two distinct reasons why Manchester Unted repeatedly top the tables when it comes to unruly fan behaviour.

The first is very obvious, what with United boasting such a vast and broad fan-base. More supporters equals more arrests. It’s simple mathematics.

Then there’s the Men In Black, a byword for soccer violence since the late Eighties.

The mob that pride themselves on having more seasoned scrappers than their peers first came to national attention when they protested outside Wayne Rooney’s house, attempting to intimidate their star striker into signing a new contract. He duly did, though likely it was an increased pay offer that proved most persuasive.

Hooliganism in popular culture

Books and films that focus on football hooliganism have proven extremely popular with the public down the years.

Perhaps the best example of celluloid coverage is ‘The Firm’, a 1988 film that featured Gary Oldman as firm leader Bex Bissell. An Estate agent on weekdays, and deranged trouble-maker each Saturday, the character and story hit a nerve at a time when the vast majority in the UK wanted to better understand hooligan culture in order to see the back of it.

Green Street and ID are two others worthy of merit.

As for books, it became a veritable industry of itself in the Nineties, with former hooligans retelling their tales in print.

Football Hooligans: Conclusion

If you were to ask a politician if hooliganism is still a problem today, you would likely be reassured that the problems of the past bear no meaning in the current climate.

“Football stadia today are safe and welcoming places, offering good quality facilities to supporters,” reads the English Football Association’s summary of measures to prevent football violence, as quoted by ESPN FC.

“There are no pitch perimeter fences. All stadia in the top two divisions, and many in the lower divisions, are all-seated. Supporter violence inside stadia is very rare. Some hooliganism does take place, but on a very limited scale and usually some way away from the stadium environment.”

In an era of ever-vigilant policing and stadium bans, gone is the notion of the “hardcore” hooligan. Instead, any controversy from fans is relegated to social media and occasional expressions of frustrations that are quickly extinguished.