Danny Dyer is the host of the program “Football hooligans international”. But now he has decided to make a documentary series on the Discovery channel about hooliganism in The United Kingdom.
In this program is he visiting the worst “firms” in England.
The first firm he is visiting is the notorious Millwall Bushwackers. They are fans of the football club Millwall F.C. They are a football team in Southeast London, and they are famous for having the most closed stadium in all of England. A Louton-Millwall football match in 1985 ended up with total chaos, when hooligans ripped over 700 seats from the grown, and used them as throwing weapons against the opposite fans and police officers, and in 2002 when Millwall lost a game, that resulted in a massive riot, with over 1000 fans. 100 police officers were injured at that riot.
Danny Dyer also visited the intercity firm (ICF) who are supporting West Ham. This firm got known in 1980 when they got organized, and started to arrange fights between themselves and firms from opponent teams. They got there name after this, when they decided to take the intercity train to football matches instead of taking the bus with the regular supporters. Another thing that makes ICF remarkable is the fact that they hand out “business cards” after they have smashed another firm, so they do not forget who they got smashed them.
The Zulu warriors, who represent Birmingham, are the larges racial mixed firm in all of England. They are feared, because of there multicultural backgrounds. Many people feel scared when they see 200 whites, blacks, and other ethnic people fighting with each other, and yelling out the Zulu tribe combat calls.
Then there are the Manchester united firm the Red Army who are arch rivals with Liverpool firm.
This rivalry goes way back, but escalated in the 70’ties where there were financial problems in England. Manchester took over all the dock work from Liverpool, so it ended up with Liverpool docks having to close down. This blew new fire under the old rivalry, there were no one who could control the situation in the 70’ties, so the two firms ran riots against each other. Especial was it a thrill from the Manchester firm, to lure the opponents into “traps” in the city.
Although many of the above is some hard-core boys, there were awaiting Danny another firm. This one is located in one of the poorest towns in all of England, the little town of Burnley. The football team is not even a top team, but the Burnley firms “the suicide squad” do not care about this. The name of the firm comes from the Libanistic suicide bombers, who got told that they would be honoured if they blew themselves up. The Burnley people felt that this would be a perfect name for them. They see it as their football team, and will defend the honour no matter what the costs are. Many of the members are quarantined from most stadiums, as well as many have been convicted for violence at football matches. The grounds of hooliganism are perfect here, people are low educated and poor. They need a place to feel they belong. They feel this through the firm, it is like a big family. The young boys have started a firm for them self, many of them not much older than 19 and already convicted for violence. The football fans in Burnley do not care and they are not afraid of any thing. Many of the young boys who have a father that are member of the firm, look up to that and they even hope to be like their fathers. They are idolising them.
Hooliganism is like a religion to many people in these firms. They are all a big family, they feel a belonging. They fight all for one cause.
After the big catastrophe in Belgium, at the Juventus-Liverpool fight where 39 people were killed. All English firms were banned for 5 years in all of Europe, this were an act that the politicians hopes could stop “The English disease”. Instead of fighting amongst each other in the firms, they all turned there attention towards The English national team, so they could get to matches abroad and continue there rioting. The fans became even more hard-core than before, many of the fans took the racistic and fascistic thoughts to them, and began to be a mob of pure evil. Wherever England played, there were fights. Most of them were started by English fans. Even though many fans will tell, that English fans only fight when confronted.
Many times the police made all this rioting even worse, it were proven that if the police were non-threatening the violence would be less. Many police forces did not use this approach and that resulted in heavy fighting from all sides, a total chaos.
The police and politicians have won a part of the battle against hooliganism, after observing and learning, but the hooliganism will never be stopped totally. There will always be people who see it as a religion and want to practise it.
