HORRIBLE HOOLIGANS

Football hooligans had existed since the Victorian era, but through to the 1960s they were generally involved in sporadic scenes of bad behaviour. By the mid-60s, fans had become more organised and identifiable, wearing club colours and chanting in favour of their teams. They had also become more mobile, going to away matches in greater numbers and arriving at the home of their opponents dressed to impress, in casual clobber of jeans, trainers and sportswear V-necks.

It was around this time that the first hooligan crews or firms emerged. One of the earliest was Manchester United’s ‘Red Army’, a hardcore minority causing trouble at Old Trafford and around the country in the early-1970s. Other firms that came to prominence in subsequent years included West Ham’s ‘ICF’ (Inter City Firm), Leeds United’s ‘Service Crew’ and Chelsea’s ‘Headhunters’. Perhaps the most high-profile and notorious firm was Millwall’s ‘F-troop’ (later called the ‘Millwall Bushwhackers’).

By the mid-70s it was more common to see front-page pictures of groups of fans swarming across pitches, printed underneath headlines such as “Soccer Shame”. The period from 1977 to 1985 was British football’s most violent and it was no surprise that the worst excesses of football hooliganism coincided with a big fall in attendances.

While only a minority of people were involved in hooliganism, and the majority of incidents involved those who’d gone looking for trouble, it did affect football fans as a whole. The widespread media perception was that all fans were thugs and louts. As a result, they were treated – and caged – like animals, with fences put around pitches in a dehumanising move that led to tragic consequences.