RAHEEM THE RELUCTANT HERO
DRUGGED UP, DRUNK, UNDER 25 AND CLAD IN DESIGNER GEAR, THERE’S A NEW BREED OF ENGLAND HOOLIGAN…
The england fans gathering in the bars of Podgorica are initially oblivious to the clusters of men, some with fighting dogs, surveying them from a distance, though the threat becomes evident soon enough, when one group barges them and another spits in their direction.
The english are moving between bars on the Njegoseva thoroughfare on Sunday evening, in the tight matrix of streets near the Podgorica City Stadium, where Danny Rose and Raheem Sterling would run their own gauntlet of hate 24 hours later.
The Montenegrin numbers escalate and by 8pm social media channels are alive to the perceived threat and to concerns, from the english, that they might have been cornered by groups who could be armed with knives.
‘ You are the No 1 hooligans and there is an interest to take the No 1 down,’ Milo Knezevic, a Montenegrin Ultra, reflected later.
Welcome to the world of following england away, where the country’s age- old reputation for trouble is proving stubbornly hard to erase and where a young minority element of fans too young to remember the bad old days is exacerbating it.
Contributing to the tense mix on the Njegoseva is a group, their banner suggesting they included Shrewsbury fans, who sing of ‘no surrender to the IRA’ and install themselves in the Berlin bar. Many of the older england fans despair of this minority new breed and their designer gear, who drink to excess, consume cocaine as well as alcohol and have rendered the experience of following the national team a grim one in places like Amsterdam and Seville recently. The ‘stag- do’ brigade, they call them.
‘You can’t win the battle with them by keeping them in their place,’ says one vastly experienced follower of the national team.
‘Some of these fans are coked up and the older ones have no idea if they have knives so who can challenge them? Fans are sick of these d***heads, ruining the experience. You’ve got to keep winning your battles (over this kind of behaviour), over and over again.’
It sounds improbable, considering they have no professional jurisdiction in this one-horse town, 1,500 miles from home, but a group of serving British police officers are fundamental to the task of neutralising the immediate signs of tension.
The UK Football Policing Unit’s (UKFPU) work on this fixture had started two months beforehand, with a pre-match visit including discussions with the local police designed to understand their policing culture, their approach to maintaining order, and to encourage them to let the British officers attempt to maintain order among their own.
At the sharp end are the officers whose title — ‘spotters’ — is a misnomer, dating back to the days when their job was to establish criminality and bring prosecutions at home. The ‘spotters’ are now cultural interpreters: experienced individuals who have the ear of the local police and are there to step in before all hell lets loose.
There is nothing undercover about their work.
On this trip, they include Roger Brown, the Derbyshire constable awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for his work in limiting casualties in the clash with Russians in Marseille at euro 2016. Brown approaches the Shrewsbury group and suggests they desist from their IRA singing. he and the four other spotters are instantly familiar to most of the england fans who regularly travel away with the team.
The rumours about the encircling Montenegrins are doing the rounds like wildfire and they approach Brown and the others for some reassurances. ‘Make your way back to your hotels when you can,’ Brown says. ‘But don’t walk on your own.’
Superintendent Luke McDonnell, head of the British delegation, leads a debrief of his officers late on Sunday in which another of the Montenegrin means of mocking england’s supposed ‘top dog hooligan’ status — stealing their flags and being pictured holding them upside down — is detailed. ‘There will be a bigger challenge tomorrow,’ McDonnell predicts.
By 10am on Monday english fans are occupying the Cheers bar on the Njegoseva, the usual domain of the local Ultras. Though the locals have instead taken to the neighbouring one, the Titograd, no one is certain how this will play. It is an environment of nationalism in the raw. The Montengrin and english national anthems are traded.
By 7pm, some england fans have been drinking for nine hours and the Shrewsbury group re- enter the equation. They encapsulate the new breed of hooligan — all seemingly under 25, immaculately turned out in Nike trainers, Aquascutum and Prada tops, Lacoste caps.
‘I want to stay here, sniff all your gear,’ they sing — the new lyric of the ‘Don’t take me home’ anthem which took hold at euro 2016 and is sung to the tune of Billy Ray Cyrus’s Achy Breaky Heart. One of the group — blond-haired, clad in Prada and Nike — lets off a flare and leads another rendition of the IRA anthem when Brown steps into the group and asks the individual to step aside.
he asks his name and, after some initial reluctance, points out that the alternative is that Montenegrin police — standing 50 yards away — will seek to procure the same information.
The supporter, a member of the FA england Fans Travel Club, eventually provides the information, admitting that he has been the subject of a police banning order in the past. Brown photographs the fan’s driving licence and emails it to the UKFPU, where an assessment of the individual will take place. If there is a pattern of such behaviour, a banning order may be sought.
‘It’s a fine line, deciding when to intervene,’ says Brown. ‘We think it will make the Shrewsbury group think again about their conduct and subdue them. There’s an undercurrent here.
‘We’re only a few thrown bottles away from a boisterous scene becoming something more serious. The Montenegrin police are satisfied we can deal with maintaining order.’
The intervention has the desired effect. One of the same english group does let off another flare half an hour later, catching Brown’s fan on the arm, but there’s less provocation in the direction of the Montenegrins. By 7.15pm, 90 minutes before kick- off, most of the england fans have moved on.
At 11pm, Brown and others are, at the Montenegrin police’s request, moving fans on from Njegoseva, where they’re closing the bars early. ‘It’s been a successful operation,’ reflects McDonnell.
‘As representatives of the country, the england fans behaved themselves very well and there were no arrests. The vast majority of fans travelling with england are decent people who save hard to make the trip. Unfortunately, it’s ruined by england fans’ reputation and by a minority who have a propensity to drink vast amounts of alcohol.
‘The behaviour of that minority in more easily accessible places, like Amsterdam and Seville, has been diabolical in the last 12 months.’
It helped that the Montenegro police have been so willing to involve the British officers. French and Lithuanian forces, in the past three years, have done their own thing. Tear gas has been used.
england’s Nations League semifinal against holland — a late evening kick-off in the modest Portuguese city of Guimaraes in June — feels infinitely more complicated. ‘ We are trying to collect information on how fans will be entering the country,’ said McDonnell. ‘ Many will travel in anticipation of english success. We expect it to be a major challenge.’