Casuals Culture

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For 20 years, Steve Cowens kept a diary of the violent exploits of The Blades Business Crew - one of the country's most actie hooligan gangs. As leader of the BBC - he visited 91 of the 92 football league grounds - and fought at most of them. In this explosive book, Cowens reveals the links between different hooligan groups around the country, how they communicate and how they organise. He details the confrontations with many of the leading gangs of the 1980s and 1990s, from West Ham and Chelsea to Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester. And for the first time, he describes many of the lesser known but equally active gangs at some of England's smaller clubs. He also tells how Sheffield is a city fiercely divided along football lines and relates the story of the city's bouncer wars' that left many jailed and permanently injured.

Football Hooligans - Gary Armstrong

This is an examination of football hooliganism from an anthropological perspective which seeks to overturn many ingrained assumptions about the phenomenon. The book is based on ten years of detailed study of a group of Sheffield United followers, and examines how groups of young males come to be defined and identified as football "hooligans". It challenges the view that violence is wholly central to the match-day experience, and argues that the creation of identity is at the root of hooliganism, with all the cultural values and rituals, codes of honour and shame, and communal patterns of hebaviour and consumption that accompany it. The author locates hooliganism historically within the milieu of an industrial-working-class culture and examines ideas of performance and ritual encompassed in idealized masculinity. He also sets out to debunk the belief that football-related violence is organized by "generals" operating within hierarchically structured groups. Such falsehoods, he contends, are advanced to augment the powers of the police and media in redefining and controlling particular groups of individuals whose behaviour does not fit easily within increasingly constrictive codes of social conduct.

Hoolifan: 30 Years of Hurt - Martin King, Martin Knight

Martin King first went to see a football match in the early 1960s at White Hart Lane. Immediately hooked, he soon became an avid Chelsea fan, or as the title of his book suggests, a Hoolifan, as over the years he became one of Chelsea's "top boys", a ringleader in orchestrating the violence on the terraces and city streets which made Chelsea so notorious throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. This is a tough and compelling account of how, according to King, football violence was and always has been, part of the fabric of male, working-class life. Page after page describes the adventures of King and the Chelsea fans as they follow Chelsea across the country, taking "ends" (the area of the ground usually reserved exclusively for the home team's fans) and engaging in organised fights, often on a terrifying and brutal scale. There are some wonderful sections on the vagaries of football fashion throughout the 70s and 80s and the cameraderie which unites the guild-like groups of fans is evoked with great skill. But King is often too quick to hide behind claims that innocents were never hurt in the violence he actively pursued and that the media has blown the problem out of all proportion. Nevertheless Hoolifan raises some uneasy and still unresolved questions about the nature of football violence.

Congratulations, You Have Just Met the ICF - Cass Pennant

A history of the most famous football battles in history, this book presents an unapologetic account of life in the front line of football violence by Cass Pennant, the leader of the notorious Inter City Firm - the ICF - West Ham's gang of football hooligans. The Inteer City Firm were the most notorious firm of football hooligans this country has seen. They were hard, terrifyingly vicious, brilliantly organized, tremendously feared and highly fashionable.

Soul Crew - Tony Rivers, Dave Jones

The Inside Story of Britain's Most Violent Hooligan Gang; The Cardiff Soul Crew are recognised by police intelligence officers as the most violent football hooligan gang currently active in Britain. Their 400-plus members have been involved in mass disorder at matches for more than twenty-five years. Yet they have largely escaped the notoriety of their English counterparts - until now. Two men closely involved with the gang tell its history from its origins through to the present day: their leaders, their fashions, how they organise and who they fight. Soul Crew relates how an infamous clash with Manchester United's Red Army in the mid-Seventies was the impetus for the formation of the mob. A core group of hardcases from the tough Docks area of Cardiff was joined by alienated, unemployed youths from the valleys and former pit villages of South Wales. They took their name from their love of soul music and adopted the 'casual' fashion of designer-label clothes. In time they would fight fierce battles with rivals like the Frontline Crew, the Bushwhackers, the Gooners and the Central Element Soul Crew also reveals for the first time the network of alliances and communications between the leading hooligans around the country: the so-called "Category C" thugs who organise much of the violence. And it tells of their cat-and-mouse relationship with the police spotters who now follow them everywhere From the publishers of the best-selling Guvnors and Blades Business Crew, Soul Crew is the best evocation yet of life running with a soccer mob.

Steaming In: Journal of a Football Fan - Colin Ward

Countless words on the subject of football hooliganism have been bandied about by politicians, journalists and sociologists. But here is the unvarnished account of life on the terraces in the 1970s and 1980s, the inside story of a fan. Colin Ward's experiences at Arsenal, Chelsea and England matches at home and abroad make astonishing readying, by turns disturbing, horrifying and hilarious. From the terraces at Highbury to Luxembourg, Turin and Istanbul Colin Ward charts the camaraderie and the confrontations, the chauvinism, the hatred and the unexpected friendships between rival fans. Along the way he draws a vivid picture of numerous colourful terrace characters, from Tall Eric with his outrageous designer outfits to the three Chelsea fans who wove tall tales all over Europe. Though caught up in the excitement of the terrace scene Colin Ward never seeks to glorify violence. However, this is a controversial and provocative book that uniquely captures the spirit of the times and never flinches from the truth. It has become that rarest of gems--a classic of football writing. Synopsis An account of life on the terraces in the 1970s and 80s, this book is an inside story of a football fan. Colin Ward's experiences at Arsenal, Chelsea and England matches, at home and abroad and his experiences of camaraderie and confrontations, chavinism, hatred and colourful terrace characters are charted. He is outspoken on drunkenness, racism and unprovoked viciousness and has harsh words to say about the attitude of politicians and the media to football hooliganism.

Want Some Aggro? - Cass Pennant, Micky Smith

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Mile End Mob ruled Upton Park. Long before the days of the ICF, they were the guv'nors of the terraces, striking fear into the other West Ham mobs and fans. Indeed it was the reputation of the Mile End mob that drove the ICF to establish their rule over the terraces in the 1980s. Co-author Micky Smith was in the thick of the action in the 60s and 70s, when there was no mercy for an away fan at Upton Park. He was there at the clashes between the rival skinhead London mobs, the taking of terraces up and down the country and the run-ins with the authorities.

More books to follow!

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