This 2002 doc from Channel 4 looks back at how football hooliganism developed and is sustained. Featuring some of the countries worst rats and neds, it's interesting viewing.
The original files were vhs caps, but the quality's good enough.
Ex football hooligan is coming to town to speak in Halifax bar
halifaxcourier.co.uk
07 May 2010
A FORMER football hooligan turned best selling author will be appearing in Halifax to talk about his experiences. Carlton Leach's biography was so popular that it was turned into the box-office smash Rise of the Footsoldier. Mr Leach, a lifelong West Ham FC fan, was a football hooligan with the infamous Inter City Firm in his youth.
He went on to become a boun cer in the East End of London before going on to become one of the most notorious gangsters around. Three of his gang members were infamously murdered in a Range Rover in Rettendon, Essex, in 1995. After turning his back on crime, Mr Leach has become a successful author and speaker.
Stephen Mitchell, the man responsible for bringing Mr Leach to Halifax, said: "It will be fantastic to see Carlton in Halifax. Many people will know about his story from Rise of the Footsoldier and he is now known as a successful speaker. He also does a lot of work raising money for the Help the Heroes charity, which is a really good cause."
Mr Leach is not the first celebrity speaker to be brought to Halifax by Mr Mitchell – ex boxer Nigel Benn came here earlier this year.
Mr Mitchell said: "It is great to be able to bring these types of celebrities to Halifax and I'm hoping to be booking John Barnes for later this year."
Mr Leach will appear at Bar Eleven, Harrison Road, Halifax, on Wednesday, May 19. Call Mr Mitchell on 07505396106 for tickets and more information.
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Oh, he does a lot of good work for charity! He'd fucking need to after the turmoil and chaos the cunt's caused throughout his life.
Of course, when that charity is one which helps injured government killers soldiers it makes a bit more sense.
The Last Word: Hooliganism isn't back... it never went away Coins hurled at players, hoardings thrown at police, fan skirmishes – the bad old days are here to stay
By Simon Turnbull
Sunday, 16 May 2010
The Independent
It had been quite a pleasant Sunday afternoon in the Humberside sunshine. On the pitch at the KC Stadium there was nothing at stake other than a bit of belated pride, Hull City having already failed to preserve their Premier League status and Liverpool having already failed to qualify for a Champions' League qualifying round spot. It showed. For the most part, the fixture was played out with the intensity of a testimonial match.
It was not much of a nothing-nothing, but then came the ado at the final whistle. Home fans streamed on to the pitch at the final whistle, some surrounding Steven Gerrard, who pushed out at one when his captain's armband was tugged. The England midfielder looked more peeved than threatened as he made his way towards the tunnel, raising both arms above his head, as if to say to the great unwashed surrounding him: "Do not even think of touching me."
Meanwhile, an altogether uglier scene was developing at the junction of the North and East Stands. Rival fans were throwing missiles at one another. There was some mutual goading and then a charge that required the intervention of police and stewards to avert a mass confrontation. The Hull Daily Mail reported the following day that there had been four arrests. A Humberside Police spokesman said: "The vast majority of Hull City and Liverpool supporters attended the game yesterday to cheer on their team. However, a small number of people came intent on causing trouble."
It was a similar story at several other grounds on the final weekend of the regulation League season. At Burton, visiting "fans" went on the rampage at the final whistle, following confirmation of Grimsby's relegation from the Football League. Advertising hoardings were ripped up and thrown at police and there were skirmishes all around the Midlands town. Trouble was also reported on the edge of the Cotswolds at Cheltenham, where Accrington Stanley were the visitors.
Most depressing of all was the confrontation between rival supporters at the final of the Muratti Vase, the annual Channel Islands cup competition. Fans of Jersey and Guernsey clashed on the pitch at the final whistle at the Springfield Stadium in St Helier. Traffic cones and bottles were hurled and Guernsey fans had to be escorted to the nearby ferry terminal by police, for their own protection. "A small number of Jerseymen did not go to watch football and had other ideas on their minds," Inspector Alan Williamson of the Jersey Police force said.
All of this came while the Football Association were busy investigating incidents from the previous weekend. At Kenilworth Road, Luton fans invaded the pitch, threw coins at York City players and hurled brooms and mops at police. At Hillsborough, fans clashed on the pitch after the 2-2 draw that confirmed Sheffield Wednesday's relegation and Crystal Palace's survival in the Championship.
"Fears that hooliganism is returning to the English game have risen following a series of unsavoury incidents," one national newspaper website reported. It has, in fact, never gone away. In general terms, it has become less high-profile than it was in the bad old days of open conflict on terraces in the 1970s and 1980s – with notable exceptions such as the predictable all-out rumble that surrounded the Carling Cup tie between West Ham and Millwall last August. In some ways, however, it has become more ingrained.
Visiting the local Asda superstore for some ink to print out local newspaper reports of last weekend's trouble, it was ironic and deeply disheartening to walk down the books aisle and see two rows of shelving devoted to volumes celebrating the phenomenon of hooliganism. In between the biography section, featuring Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father, and the classics section, featuring 1984 and Little Dorrit, were such tawdry tomes as Terrace Legends and The Real Football Factories.
Hooligan 'firms' were around in the bad old days but they did not enjoy an acceptance into mainstream society, with books glorifying them on supermarket shelves and programmes devoted to them on late-night television. And back in the 1980s, good old Jim Bergerac could go about his business on Jersey without any danger of detecting football hooligans at work.
As worrying as the activities of the hard-core firms, who tend to cause most of their trouble in pre-arranged clashes away from the immediate vicinity of football grounds, has been the spread of tribal rivalry among the wider world of football fans. Driving away from Asda, the Nissan Micra in front had a "Baby on Board" sign in the back window and a sticker depicting a figure in a black-and-white shirt urinating on a red-and-white jersey. You would not have seen that in the 1990s, let alone the Seventies and Eighties.
It is symptomatic, of course, of a broader increase in snarling, confrontational, yobbish behaviour in public – the kind of blight on society it would be heartening to think the new Lib-Con government might start to eradicate. In reality though, we will still be talking about the plague of football hooliganism five years from now, and wringing our hands in despair.
"The Neanderthal monster," the Burnley defender Clarke Carlisle called it after witnessing it at first hand when his team played Blackburn at Turf Moor in March. Its ugly head is always there, waiting to rear up and cast a menacing shadow over the beautiful game.
While on the pitch Saints have had two of the most turbulent seasons in their history, off the pitch the team hailed as a family-friendly club have been involved in some of the most memorable games – but not for the right reasons. Five times in the past 18 months big matches at St Mary’s have been marred by disgraceful scenes of violence not previously associated with the south coast club. Police and football chiefs have become so worried by the growing situation – which they say is tarnishing the reputation of Southampton FC – that crowd trouble before and after games in the city has been raised at a national level.
At the centre of this new wave of hooliganism is a “risk” group of about 60 so-called Southampton fans hell-bent on causing violence and disorder. The Daily Echo can today reveal how alarmingly, most of them are schoolboys aged between 14 and 16 who appear to pride themselves on generating thuggery. They are a group more interested in what violence they can create by involving others, than what they can actually achieve themselves, say police.
One of the first and most significant matches where officers found themselves facing mass disorder was Saints’ defeat to Charlton Athletic last April, when the club was facing the threat of relegation having already been plunged into administration and set to receive a ten point deduction. Having lost in the final few minutes, fans spilled out of the ground on to the concourse of the stadium where a swelling crowd of some 500 Saints fans gathered to goad opposition supporters.
Superintendent Rick Burrows, football commander in charge of overseeing the policing of Saints games, said: “What cannot be heard on that video is the clink of coins, pebbles and stones being hurled by Saints fans at Charlton fans who were being held against the wall of the stadium.” Supt Burrows, who has spent 25 years overseeing the policing of football, describes the “pavement dancing” of scores of Saints fans – described by academics as “ritualised aggression” – who can be seen goading away fans and police, waving their arms in the air and shouting and swearing.
While the situation is brought under control, police can be seen ushering elderly Saints fans caught up in the melee away from the trouble. Similar scenes of mass disorder have been repeated at Saints home games against Yeovil Town, Luton Town, Pompey, and most recently Swindon Town, where injuries were sustained, multiple arrests were made and many Saints fans brought before the courts to face charges.
But what is behind the growing trend of football disorder in Southampton and what is being done about it? Next month Southampton police will unveil their new weapon in driving out the problem – in the form of the first ever football banning officer who will be based in the city. Funded nationally, the new officer will work alongside Supt Burrows and the city’s football spotters and intelligence unit looking specifically at Southampton’s “risk” group. Football banning orders have already shown their value – with 109 people in Hampshire having been slapped with the order that stops them attending any ground or match, in some cases for between three and five years.
Supt Burrows said: “It is one of our greatest tools to get this tiny minority, who are ruining it for the rest, away from the football scene. It’s incumbent on not just us, but the club and even the media to tackle these people and deal with them. I don’t want to make it sound like Southampton is a dangerous place for football to take place or for fans to visit – it certainly isn’t. There is no major problem, more a problem involving a tiny number of people that is rising, and we will do all that we can to tackle it. We have a very good relationship with the club and its stewards and work really well together and compliment each other to achieve the same goal. The club’s safety officer has been extremely supportive of our efforts to deal with this small minority.”
Supt Burrows believes problems of low-level hooliganism stem back some 18 months. “During the last season and a half we have seen a steady increase in the number of cases of disorder, with more people going through the courts and more people receiving banning orders. Southampton is known as a family friendly club nationally, with a very good reputation with a history of little of no disorder, but that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny at the moment. There is a small number of what we term “risk group” who are spoiling the reputation of the club. They have over the past few months sought confrontation, often with individual fans or groups rather than large groups. They are bringing the reputation of Southampton down. You find that older fans then respond and get drawn back in to football related violence. The youth risk are more about what they can cause or generate, than what they can actually do themselves.”
So is it significant that as Saints found themselves sliding from the Premiership through the Championship to League One, the incidents of violence increased?
Supt Burrows said: “We saw a change of fan base, as any club does when it comes out of the Premiership. You don’t have that corporate environment that you get with clubs with big money. It’s just a personal opinion, but as clubs go in to a lower division the money disappears and the fan base alters. That then can, given the right circumstances, develop a risk group. There is no agreed definition of what a football hooligan is, but essentially I believe it’s what it says on the tin. They are interested in football, but whether at home or away they also seek to get involved in trouble.”
Supt Burrows draws on his vast experience combined with numerous academic studies and research papers into football crowds and hooligan trouble to explain his theory of how football disorder breaks out. He points to tiers of groups, with a secondary group who will surround the core troublemakers and will join in with disorder if it happens. The third group can be drawn in to violent scenes, but wouldn’t normally, while the fourth is the remaining vast majority of fans who will stand back and watch.
“There’s often no sense of right, that even though they are breaking the law, there is also something about loss of identity in a crowd. Hooliganism tends to go in cycles and it can flare up when something big happens such as the run up to the World Cup or the build up to a local derby game. At the centre of it you find people who are predominantly working class, who have experienced violence in the home or on the street as not only normal but it helps them bond as a group and some feel it gives them status.
“The incidents of hooliganism tend to be when they present themselves, rather than being organised well. I think a lot of it is ‘hold me back’ bravado and the pavement dancing we saw at Charlton, but it doesn’t take much to step over the line and that’s where we have to identify the catalysts and stop it escalating. I can sense it when disorder is about to happen, you can hear the tone of both sets of groups rise, you can feel it on the back of your neck. It takes something extra to spark it off and once it starts it can be very difficult to stop. The trick as a commander it ensuring you have the right people with the right skills to handle it.”
Soccer hooligan jailed for a year
24 May 2010
thestar.co.uk
A FOOTBALL hooligan from Doncaster has been jailed for 12 months for taking part in crowd violence after the Carling Cup game between West Ham United and Millwall.
Lawrence Sullivan, aged 34, of Parkinson Street, Wheatley, was filmed throwing bottles and a brick at police outside Upton Park on August 25 last year. He was one of many suspects caught on camera before kick-off by a helicopter hovering over the The violent scenes - described by the then Sports Minister as 'a disgrace to football' - followed the stabbing of a Millwall supporter.
Sullivan was arrested in Doncaster two weeks later after police
circulated his picture to newspapers. At first he denied his involvement and claimed the picture was of 'someone who looked similar to him'. He later admitted involvement after police searched his home and found an identical jacket to the one seen on film. Sullivan admitted he had drunk 14 cans of Stella Artois that day despite being on anti-depressants.
Stephen Requena, prosecuting at Inner London Crown Court, said the violence at the Carling Cup match amounted to 'disorder not seen for many, many years'. He said that in the police film Sullivan could be seen smashing a brick and throwing half in the direction of police, as well as hurling two bottles. Later he was caught angrily pushing a wheelie bin towards police lines.
Defence barrister Desmond Rosario said Sullivan, a catalogue deliveryman, was 'entirely out of his depth' and was caught up with other hooligans. Commenting on the DVD film, he said: "This is someone who appears to be swept away with the crowd. He appears to be looking for an individual for some sort of support and typically doesn't precisely know the nature of his antagonist."
Judge Roger Chapple blasted Sullivan for his 'appalling behaviour' and said alcohol was no excuse. "It's a contributory factor if not the main factor in offences such as this. Mob violence is a loathsome phenomenon of modern life causing considerable and understandable alarm to the public and police officers who have to deal with it."
The judge said he was jailing Sullivan to deter others from doing the same thing. Sullivan, who admitted violent disorder, will be banned from all football matches on his release.
'Pathetic' football hooligans in train ambush are sentenced
26 May 2010
By Andrew Robinson
yorkshirepost.co.uk
LEEDS United football yobs left train carriages spattered with blood after attacking Bradford City supporters in an ambush. The thugs used sticks and planks of wood to carry out the assault as horrified women with small children looked on. The train driver was also assaulted and windows smashed in the pre-arranged violence at Bramley railway station, Leeds.
Judge Kerry Macgill branded seven young thugs as "pathetic" and "not proper football fans" as he sentenced them at Leeds Crown Court for violent disorder.
The court heard that around 25 Leeds fans ambushed the train as it pulled into the station at around 6.30pm. They attacked the train with bottles and pieces of wood before some of the Leeds fans boarded and tried to pull Bradford supporters onto the platform. Terrified passengers, including small children, were protected by some of the Bradford supporters. One passenger, however, suffered a gash to the head after being struck by a bottle and the driver was hit with a can as he tried to contact police.
Those involved later bragged about it on the internet. Seven of them, all from Leeds, were sentenced after they admitted violent disorder. Ryan Rodley, 21, of Fenshaw Avenue, Morley, the ringleader, was jailed for five years after he also pleaded guilty to causing a barmaid grievous bodily harm by throwing an ashtray at her face in his local pub.
Joel Best, 19, of Brecks Lane, Kippax, who is currently serving a three-year sentence for a separate offence of wounding, was jailed for 18 months. Joe Deering, 20, of Suffield Road, Gildersome, was jailed for 18 months. Jordan Bleasby, 19, of Somerville Grove, Killingbeck, and Wayne Johnstone, 18, of Brooklands Lane, Seacroft, were given 12-month suspended sentences, 240 hours' unpaid work and each ordered to pay £180 compensation. Two other members of the gang, aged 16 and 17 at the time of the incident, were handed community punishments and ordered to pay compensation.
Judge Macgill imposed two suspended jail sentences after hearing how they had good work records and had acted out of character.
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This seems to be the facebook page of the big tough guy who got 5 years - CLICK. He has 585 'friends' - I wonder how many will visit him in jail once they know what a cunt he is?
Curbing violence in the football league
May 30th 2010
nigeriang.com
Last weekend, disgruntled fans of Premier League club, Kano Pillars attacked players and officials of Dolphins FC as well as the presiding referee and his assistants following the conclusion of a league encounter decided at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano. While players and officials from Dolphins were pelted with missiles on the pitch, the centre referee Gabriel Adigwe and his assistants were attacked by the displeased Kano Pillars fans right inside the tunnel as they headed for the changing room.
The reason behind the fans’ discontentment was down to their team’s inability to secure a win over the visitors from Port Harcourt which would have extended their lead on the league standings over closest rivals, Enyimba who many are now tipping to end the season as league champions for a record setting sixth time. "I think the fans were mad that we weren’t able to win the match,” said a Kano Pillars player who wishes to be anonymous because he was afraid of, as he put it, being “victimized”. “I think the referee did his best to be fair to both sides so I don’t think it was fair what happened to him,” he added.
The game itself witnessed a lengthy stoppage induced by fans’ encroachment on the pitch midway through the second half which led to referee Adigwe justifiably extending the game well beyond the stipulated 90 minutes, and it wasn’t until well into stoppage time before the home side finally cancelled Dolphins one goal lead courtesy of a penalty kick conversion from the league’s leading scorer, Ahmed Musa.
Whether the spot kick awarded to Kano Pillars was justified or whether the referee took that course of action in order to restore parity in what was obviously a charged atmosphere is an entirely different issue as the game was not broadcast live on television. Even at that, there have been claims from Dolphins that their cameraman was assaulted and his camera destroyed by the irate fans but there has been no independent confirmation of this.
Nevertheless, league organisers, the Nigeria Premier League, following the report from the game’s Match Commissioner, swung into action by slamming a fine of one million naira on Kano Pillars while also ordering them to
pay the sum of two hundred thousand naira each to referee Adigwe, his two assistants and the match commissioner. In addition to that, the NPL also ordered Kano Pillars to prosecute their remaining home games in
Calabar with a strict order to effect the payments on or before June 5, as well as identifying the perpetrators of the ugly incident.
It’s a routine that has been used on more than a handful of occasions by the NPL in a season that has routinely been plagued by violence on the part of football fans. Clubs like Rangers, Wikki Tourists and Niger Tornadoes have had to pay similar fines this season while Ranchers Bees, in addition to the fines, also had five players and officials receiving a year-long ban from football activities.
But regardless of the number of clubs that have been hit with sanctions, it appears clubs are not doing enough to prevent acts of violence from being perpetrated by fans at their matches, and if the situation doesn’t abate there’s every reason to believe that we are yet to hear the last of such incidents this season especially with the end of the campaign just a few weeks away as clubs seek every avenue to secure the points needed to either secure the title or stave off relegation.
One can only hope that if another incident will occur before the end of the season, it won’t involve referee Adigwe who was also at the centre back in March when Niger Tornadoes were forced to a goalless draw in Minna by visiting Bayelsa United.
“The fans said they have to beat me up to teach me a lesson because I don’t help them in their home games. They say that every time I come to their home games, they always play a draw. I am seriously damaged psychologically and I don’t know if I can do any match after this without the fear of being beaten again,” said the Lagos based referee two months ago in an interview with an online sports magazine.
Adigwe couldn’t be reached for his own side of the story this time around but his boss at the Lagos State Referees Council, Tade Azeez feels much more needs to be done with regards to sanctions on defaulting clubs if the situation is to be nipped in the bud.
Football hooligan jailed for ignoring away game ban
Jun 3 2010
Sam Dimmer
coventrytelegraph.net
A FOOTBALL hooligan banned from away games after attacking a man in Coventry will be watching the World Cup from prison after being caught trying to get into another match. Birmingham City fan Nigel Proffitt, aged 41, was given a banning order and a suspended jail sentence after punching a man in the back of a head before a Sky Blues match on February 21 last year.
He was banned from attending away matches for four years after attacking his victim in a Coventry pub before Birmingham City took on Coventry at the Ricoh Arena. But on January 2 this year Proffitt, of Castle Vale, Birmingham, tried to sneak into Birmingham City’s away clash at Nottingham Forest. After getting off a coach he was spotted by police who quickly confirmed he was in breach of his banning order.
At Coventry Crown Court yesterday Proffitt, who pleaded guilty to breaching the ban and his suspended sentence, was jailed for nine months. Prosecuting barrister Tim Green said of the original offence: “His victim, after being hit on the back of the head, fell unconscious. After the incident a fight broke out. The defendant had been drinking at the time.”
Proffitt’s defence barrister Daniel White said that since the incident his client had been trying to turn his life around. “He wants to move out of the area. He has made arrangements to move to council accommodation in Clacton-on-Sea,” he said. “He will move there with his new partner who is giving birth later this year. That new relationship has been very positive with him and his intention is to take care of that family and get work.”
Mr White added Proffitt has already completed a course allowing him to work on the railways and another to obtain a forklift driving license. He had also planned to complete a course in construction skills, but Recorder Nicholas Cartwright opted to send him to jail instead. “This was a deliberate breach of a football banning order,” Mr Cartwright said. “A breach just four months into a four year order. You were fully aware what the consequences would be as this is your second banning order.”
Proffitt’s original suspended prison sentence was a year long but because he had completed a significant number of unpaid work hours it was reduced to six months. He was sentenced to three months in prison for breaching the football banning order. The sentences will run consecutively.
Burnley hooligan pretended to raise money for Accrington Stanley
3rd June 2010
lancashiretelegraph.co.uk
A NOTORIOUS football hooligan pretended to be a fundraiser collecting money on behalf of Accrington Stanley. But Norman ‘Knuckles’ Jones, from Williams Road, Burnley, only made £2 before he was rumbled. He managed to obtain donations from Denise Catterall and David Maudsley, who runs Garth Dawson photography, in Blackburn Road, Accrington, before the alarm was raised by suspicious businesses in the town centre.
Police were called and the 60-year-old was arrested, with officers seizing a charity tin and fake charity identification. Jones, who is known to suffer from angina, then claimed he was suffering from chest pains and was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital. He was later picked up again by police and confessed in interview.
Accrington Stanley chief executive Rob Heys said: “You worry about any collection under false pretences, especially taking advantage of people’s kindness and generosity in this day and age when money is tight. It is wrong that someone should carry out this type of activity.” Stanley safety officer Mick Schultz took the call from concerned shopkeepers. He said: “I spoke to one of the businesses, got a description and stumbled across this guy with a tin and fake badge. I called an officer I know, who also happens to be a football hooligan spotter and he recognised him immediately.
Hyndburn magistrates gave him a 12 month supervision order, with £85 costs. It is not the first time the Jones - the former leader of the Burnley Suicide Squad - has been in trouble for similar offences. His other bogus charity ruses include collecting money for a children’s jujitsu club from pubs and clubs in Burnley and Pendle, for which he was given a suspended sentence in March 2008. In 2007 he was jailed for a year after pretending to be collecting for a blaze victim and in 2005 for children’s charities in Clitheroe, Nelson and Blackburn.
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It's our old pal from page 4 again! Such a charming chap.
I just saw the 'official' England World Cup 2010 song by Dizzee Rascal and James Corden on Britain's Got Talent. It's pretty catchy, but near the end the 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' motif is greatly emphasised and repeated 3 or 4 times...
If you don't already know, that chant is what hooligans sing all the time. So, I can only imagine that in the mind of the prodcuer (Simon Cowell) England football and hooliganism are not only intertwined but co-dependent!
If this doesn't kick up a bit of dust-storm I'll be very surprised.
SOUTH AFRICA DEPORTS ARGENTINE FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS
furtune Sports
nigerianbestforum.com
Jun 7, 2010
South Africa has deported 10 suspected Argentine football hooligans who police say were planning to disrupt the World Cup. The men, part of a larger group of about 80 fans, were arrested at Johannesburg airport and found to be on an entry blacklist. South African police have said the move shows security preparations ahead of the games are paying off.
The World Cup – the first held on the African continent – begins on Friday. The men were said to belong to the country’s “barras bravas”, organised groups renowned for football-related violence. They were detained on Sunday after travelling from Argentina via the Angolan city of Luanda, and deported on Monday. At least two of them were group leaders, and another was out on bail for murder, according to police.
“Intelligence indicated that these persons would commit acts of public disorder, engage in acts of violence and provoke conflict with certain fans of opponent teams and other groups from Argentina,” a police statement said. “They are known to have a history of being involved in crime and antagonising local law enforcements,” it added.
In Argentina, there have been more than 240 football-related deaths since 1924, according to Salvemos al Futbol (Let’s Save Football), an Argentine non-governmental organisation. In the past, the country’s club directors have been accused of fomenting and funding the barras bravas. At a news conference in South Africa last Tuesday, Argentine coach Diego Maradona denied links to hooligans, following reports that a group of them had travelled with the team. The next day, Argentine authorities gave South Africa a list of 800 known hooligans, saying it had “no interest in seeing these people travel to the finals”.
Police in South Africa are not used to dealing with football-related violence, which is rare in domestic games in South Africa. In the statement, they said that they would not tolerate “loutish and violent” behaviour during the tournament. Last month, a group of English hooligans tried to travel to South Africa via Dubai, but were stopped by South African and British police, according to South African Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
England's bootboys seem a thing of the past
irishtimes.com
KEITH DUGGAN
19th June 2010
HAS ENGLISH football grown up? Here in Cape Town they began gathering in the bars and stadiums around the Waterfront from lunchtime, draping their flags across the wooden railings of the cafes. Home places were stitched onto the Cross of St George. They came from Addlesworth, from Stoke, from Portsmouth, Hastings and Doncaster. In the sunshine a few peeled off the regulation team shirts to reveal the Gothic font of nation and symbolic lions inked into their backs. They sang loudly and swamped the cheap lager.
But something was missing. The menace. From the beginning of this World Cup there has been something different about the profile of England’s travelling army. On the day before the opening ceremony, a local news channel played on loop an interview with two young England fans just arrived in Johannesburg who were taking the brand new Guatrain in from the airport. They praised the rail system and South Africa in general. They were regular-edition public schoolboys, more readily associated with Six Nations afternoons in Twickenham than with the yeomanry who traditionally travel the world to follow England’s doomed football adventures.
Except now, the stereotype of the England football fan – the suede-head bootboys in Fred Perry polo shirts and Oxford jackets – is in the minority. Families follow England. Couples follow England. In between singing the old chant – “Enger-land Enger-land, Enger-land” – a bunch of lads from Birmingham sat discussing the merits of Jan Koller for the Czech Republic and Peter Crouch for England. Algerian fans gathered around them, some wearing traditional Muslim garb and waving their flags as they passed by in minibuses. The most hostile response they provoked was a round of vaudeville booing.
Every so often, the veterans of England’s World Cup yesterdays might wander down the street, wearing the flag as a cloak and looking like they would easily blend into to an episode of Britain’s Toughest Pubs. In their 50s, they almost certainly had war tales of those years when to be an England football fan was to sign up to a kind of international infamy, when host cities would fear the worst once those white jerseys appeared on the boulevards.
Whatever the failures of English football, the rehabilitation of the game from its state in the 1980s and 1990s, when the many episodes of barbarism and lunacy perpetrated by English men in the name of football club and country seemed to point to a malaise at the heart of a society, has been a sweeping success. From the War Cabinet set up in the days after the Luton-Millwall riots of 1985 to the identity cards to the gradual modernisation and humanisation of the football stadiums across England, the room and appetite for violence has gradually diminished. In this decade, incidents of trouble caused by England fans at major tournaments has steadily decreased, with preventative arrests in Stuttgart causing the only blight at the last World Cup.
You only have to watch Shane Meadows splendid This is England or read Among the Thugs, Bill Buford’s involved study of running with the Inter-City Jibbers of Manchester and getting caught up in the National Front, to recall the energy and power behind the snarling face of the England supporter. Even Buford admitted the adrenaline rush and power and notoriety that went with using the squares and main streets of placid European cities was as powerful as any hallucinogen. With England failing economically and imperially, football hooliganism, those gangs with the Dickensian names and the vicious intent, were at least something to belong to.
The reasons membership has fallen away are manifold. Maybe it is because of the governmental determination to wipe out hooliganism in the wake of twin disgraces of Heysel and Hillsborough. Maybe the sweeping wealth of the last decade gave the erstwhile hooligans new pursuits. Perhaps it was just a generational thing.
It is seven o’clock now in Cape Town and Green Point stadium, with its glorious panorama, is already filled with England fans. The old-timers who remember the barricades and riot police that greeted their every visit must be scattered among the nouveau crowd. You can’t help thinking if some in their number think this new civilised way is vanilla in comparison to the way things used to be. But one thing is clear. The fear English fans inflicted on people from opposition teams is disappearing, and in South Africa they have been treated like any other crowd.
England has been looking forward to this World Cup campaign entertaining greater expectations than they have done in years. Regardless of the flat performance in their opening game, the uneven beginning to this tournament will give them heart. Gerrard (born 1980), Rooney (b 1985), Lampard (b 1978), Heskey (b 1978) and Cole (b 1980) are all children of the years when ultra-violence and hate raged through English football. They have risen to distinguish themselves from the vast cast of talented nearly-kids who did not quite make it and enjoy a level of prosperity beyond the wildest dreams of the players who entertained the terrace mobs.
And whether it is wilful delusion or not, they are the generation of Englishmen regarded as having a realistic chance of reuniting England’s football culture with its lone glory of 1966. But major tests now lie ahead. Last night against Algeria should have provided the golden generation with an easy chance to flaunt their skills and reputation.
An hour before kick-off on a fine winter night in Cape Town and the stadium was draped in the Cross of St George. But even in the aftermath of a hugely disappointing draw, it is hard to imagine these English fans rampaging through the streets of iKapa tonight. Whether the princes of England’s football camp can rediscover their form to escape the group and conquer the world will be seen in coming weeks.
But it could be their loyal cavalry have left the marauding ways behind them. Maybe they have learned at last. Them was rotten days.
-------------------------
The test will be if they lose against Slovenia. And not only meaning in South Africa, but in England too...
Ingres and Elegant Develop Platform: 'The Hooligan Tracking System' for Football Games in Europe
21 Jun 2010
tradingmarkets.com
Ingres Corp., an open source database management company and company specializing in the New Economics of IT, announced that it and its partner, Elegant, a Dutch System Integrator, have developed a platform to help make attending football games across Europe a safer experience. The Hooligan Tracking System is a centralized knowledgebase that gathers instances of football hooliganism around Europe. The system was developed for CIV, a subsidiary of the Dutch Police, and helps map previous incidents as well as predict and prevent future outbursts of violence.
CIV is a center of excellence for football hooligan management. As records of previous violence and its perpetrators were disparate and residing within various organizations across the Netherlands and the world, the Dutch Police selected Ingres as the foundational database to record information regarding incidents of violence, hooligans' backgrounds, and trends in behavior. The Hooligan Tracking System has become CIV's key weapon in preventing football violence and enables proactive management and protection of people attending games.
"For the Euro 2000 Football tournament in the Netherlands we were looking for a way to register football hooligans to proactively defend against violence," said Anton Kunenborg, IT Analyst at CIV. "Particularly, we looked to record, register, and process images of hooligans for future reference."
To be able to meet all the functional, technical and financial criteria, Elegant developed the modeling tool Elegance, written in the Ingres OpenROAD development environment, which automates the data modeling and application generation process based upon user specifications. The Hooligan Tracking System has become a mission critical tool for not only the Dutch authorities, but also the whole European community to fight hooliganism and make football safer for all those that wish to attend games.
The successful migration to Ingres Database and Ingres OpenROAD is in line with the Dutch Government's mandate to consider open source software as a potentially equal alternative to closed source software in public tenders. The Dutch Police has seen a significant reduction of maintenance costs due to the stability of the new platform, making the project a best practice example of how government agencies can lower IT costs.
"All agencies, especially those in the public sector, are always looking for ways to do more with less," said Steve Shine, executive vice president of worldwide operations, Ingres. "We are pleased that the Dutch Government has embraced open source solutions as a key element of its innovation strategy. Ingres is proud to be part of such an important undertaking that is keeping those who attend football matches safer and out of harm's way."
The reason it's relatively easy to get stories about hooligans from around the world is because they're called hooligans in just about every language... so this system probably isn't that much more complex than me getting google alerts!
Here's a selection of books about the hooligan scum.
Title Author Football Club Date pub. Period Covered by the book
All Quiet on the Hooligan Front Ward, Colin Various 1997 1980s →
Among the Thugs Burford, Bill Man. Utd 1991 1980s & 1990s
Armed for the Match Ward, C.; Hickmott, S. Chelsea 2000 1970s & 1980s
Blades Business Crew Cowens, S. Sheffield 2001 1980s & 1990s
Bloody Casuals Allen Jay Aberdeen 1989 1980s →
Bovver Brown, C. Bristol Rovers 2001 1970s →
Bring Out your Riot Gear - Hearts Are Here Ferguson, C. Hearts 1999 1980s
Cass Pennant, C. West Ham 2002 1970s
Casuals Thornton, P. Various 2003 1970s & 1980s
City Psychos Tordoff, S. Hull 2002 1960s →
Congratulations: You Have Been A Victim Of Casual Violence Rivers, D. Aberdeen 2005 1980s →
Congratulations - You've Just Met the ICF Pennant, C. West Ham 2003 1970s & 1980s
England's Number One Dodd, P McNee, I. Carlisle 1998 1985 →
Football Hooligans - Knowing the Score Armstrong, G. Sheffield Utd. 1998 1980s →
Flying with the Owls Crime Squad Allen, P. & Naylor, D. Sheffield Wed. 2005 1970s →
Gilly: Running With a Pack of Wolves King, M. & Shaw, G. Wolves 2005 1970s →
Good Afternoon Gentlemen Gardner, B. & Pennant, C. West Ham 2005 1960s →
Guv'nors Francis, M. & Walsh, P. Man. City 1997 1970s & 1980s
Hoolifan Knight, M. & King, M. Chelsea 1999 1970s & 1980s
Inside the 'Forest Executive Crew' Boatsy, G. & King, M. Notts Forest 2006 1970s →
Naughty Chester, M. Stoke 2004 1980s →
Red Army General O'Neill, T. Man. Utd 2004 1980s →
Rivals King, M. Various 2005 1970s →
Rolling with the 6.57 Crew Pennant, C. & Silvester, R. Portsmouth 2004 1980s & 1990s
Saturday is Service Day Bell, C. Motherwell 2002 1980s →
Scally Nicholls, A. Everton 2004 1970s & 1980s
Sex, Drugs and Football Thugs: On the Road with the Naughty Forty Chester, M. Stoke 2005 1980s →
Soul Crew Jones, D. & Rivers, T. Cardiff 2002 1970s →
St George in my Heart Johnson, C. National Team 2000 1970s →
Steaming In Ward, C. Arsenal 1989 1970s & 1980s
Suicide Squad: The Inside Story of a Football Firm Porter, A. Burnley 2005 1970s →
Terrace Legends Pennant, C. & King, M. Various 2003 1960s →
The Boys from the Mersey Allt, N. Liverpool 2004 1970s →
The Brick: A Hooligan's Story Debrick, P. Middlesborough 2005 1980s →
The Frontline Theone, J. Middlesboro 2003 1960s →
The Men in Black: Inside Manchester United's Football Hooligan Firm O'Neill, T. Man. Utd 2006 1980s →
The Naughty Nineties King, M. & Knight, M. Various 1999 1990s →
30 Years of Hurt: A History of England's Hooligan Army Pennant, C. & Nicholls, A. National Team 2006 1970s →
To the Terrace Born Denton, T. Chelsea 2003 1960s →
Top Boys Pennant, C. Various 2005 1970s →
Tottenham Massive Tanner, T. Tottenham 2006 1980s →
We Fear No Foe Johnson, C. Millwall 1999 1980s →
Want Some Aggro Pennant, C. & Smith, M. West Ham 2002 1960s & 1970s
Who Wants It? Ward, C. & Henderson, C. Chelsea 2000 1970s →
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