America Experiences Hooliganism

In July of 20008, West Ham United played in a friendly match in America. It is believed that in the United States, supporters of the Major League Soccer teams tried to emulate the firm from the film Green Street Hooligans. One group that supported the Columbus Crew out of Ohio, the Hudson Street Hooligans, started a fight with some of the members of the Inter City Firm. A handful of members from the firm moved to the northeast corner of the stadium, where they provoked the Americans. The groups chanted at each other and ultimately a fistfight broke out in the stadium. It took the police large efforts to break up the fight, but ultimately only one arrest was made. This was the first time America experienced European football hooliganism.

After speaking with an anonymous woman who has attended football matches in England, I was surprised to find the level of violence that occurs within the stadiums. She recalls one particular game where a fight broke out. She attended the game with her husband, an avid follower of the Premier League in Europe, but she did not stay with him the entire time. A small fistfight broke out in the middle of the game, which turned into more of a riot. She remembers standing in one section of the stadium, watching the fight. She then stated that the pack of men grew larger and larger, until it was eventually reaching the place she was standing. Her husband was excited by the violence, but she became very nervous and a bit frightened. She decided to move to the lower part of the stadium, where the kids were playing. After telling the story, she laughed and said that she was happy to safely be with the children, and that’s where she will be standing from now on.

Leonard, Tom.
2008 West Ham Fans Brawl with Columbus Crew as Football Hooliganism Hits the US. Telegraph.co.uk: New York, July.

Lexi Alexander

Lexi Alexander was the writer and director of Green Street Hooligans. Dougie Brimson was a former hooligan who helped develop the story and screenplay for the movie. Lexi Alexander was five years old when she attended her first football match. She was from Germany, where she supported a small local team. In her statement about the film, Alexander explains the nature of the matches. As a child, she would attend the games and sit in the F-stand (family stand) with her brother. This area has comfortable seating and is the safe place to watch, opposed to the D-stands, which stand for damage. This area is invitation only and it is where the hooligans would stand to watch the games. Alexander describes them as, “some kind of dangerous animal species” (Alexander) because they are fenced in cages.

Ten years after attending her first match, Alexander became involved with martial arts. After earning a black belt, she began to teach karate. Most of the boys in her class were members of the notorious Mannheim firm, City Boys. Eventually, they invited her to watch a game with them in the D-stand. Before she knew it, Alexander actually became a member of the firm, and the boys didn’t have to worry about her during riots due to her background in martial arts. She states that, “For three years, my life was my football firm. We had a pub that was our pub and on any given day of the week, you would find a member of the City Boys in there” (Alexander). On match days, the members of her firm would meet at the pub no matter what. She claims that regardless of the violence that surrounded her, the firm was like her family.

Alexander, Lexi.
A Statement from Lexi Alexander. Green Street Hooligans. Warner Brothers Entertainment: 2006.

Hooliganism

Through basic research via Wikipedia, I have found that football hooliganism consists of destructive behavior, including brawls, vandalism, and intimidation by association of football club fans. Fights break out between the supporters of rival teams before or after matches, spontaneously during matches, or they take place at pre-arranged locations in order to avoid arrest by the police. The first recorded instances of violence that occurred away from the actual matches occurred when the Preston fans fought Queen’s Park fans in a railway station in 1886. Fights range from shouting to fistfights to riots. Some riots can get out of hand and include bats, bottles, rocks, knives or even guns.



Some firms are linked to politics or racism and are representative of all the supporters of their teams. Some examples of firms that are associated with political groups are the Headhunters that follow Chelsea, the Fine Young Casuals that support Oldham Athletics, and the Ultra Sur who follow Real Madrid. Some firms also consist of multicultural makeup’s, including Arsenal’s Gooners, West ham United’s Inter-City Firm (ICF), and Feyenoord Rotterdam’s SCF. Cass pennant is a well-known figure that came out of the ICF. As a black man he was able to climb to the top, and he eventually became one of the generals of the ICF. This is a remarkable achievement during the 1970s and 1980s, during a time when racism was very prevalent in Great Britain. Following his engagement in the ICF, he became an author to record his story. In his autobiography, he talks about his own stories of imprisonment. He also includes a fight that he started that occurred at a nightclub, where he was shot 3 times. It is interesting to see that despite racism among society, Pennant was able to find success among the Inter-City Firm.



The ICF supports West Ham United, was the inspiration for the movie Green Street Hooligans. West Ham’s home stadium is called Boleyn Ground and they are a football club out of East London. The main firm in Green Street Hooligans was the Green Street Elite, who also followed West Ham. West Ham firms began in the 1960s with the Mile End Mob, which were a group of supporters that thrived on the intimidation of their own fans as well as rival fans. The West Ham firms were some of the first to begin wearing casual clothing in order to avoid arrest. The ICF was the first to travel to inter city matches on regular trains opposed to tightly policed, football-based charters. Like in the movie, Millwall is West Ham’s strongest and oldest rivalry.

Pennant, Cass.
2000 Congratulations You Have Just Met the ICF. London: Pennant Books.

History of Firms

The history of hooliganism remains unclear in terms of when the first football firms began. Although the beginning of established firms is unknown, they can be traced all the way back to the Middle Ages in England. Edward II banned football because he felt that the violence and disorder surrounding matches led to social unrest and tension. The first recorded instances of gangs in England occurred in the 1880s. In order to establish themselves, gangs would intimidate neighborhoods and referees.

A specific example of early gang activity in 1885 includes Preston North End and Aston Villa. After a friendly match in which Preston defeated Aston Villa 5-0, the two teams were pelted with stones and spat at. One player was actually beaten so severely that he almost lost consciousness. In 1905, Preston fans were tried for hooliganism. There was no recorded firm activity between the two world wars, but it received widespread media attention in the late 1950s. By the 1960s there was an average of 25 hooligan incidents reported in England each year.



Football firm violence replaced unorganized violence in relation to sports, however both groups are considered to be hooligans. Today, football firms are also referred to as casuals. Beginning in the 1970s, members of firms began to dress differently. Instead of wearing clothing associated with the club that they represented, they would dress in designer clothes and expensive sportswear. Popular designers associated with UK football firms include Pringle, Fred Perry, Burberry, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, and Stone Island. By dressing in a more casual manner, firms no longer stood out to police, and it became a mechanism to avoid arrest.

NationMaster.com
2005 Football Hooliganism, The Free Encyclopedia.

"Green Street Hooligans"

Ever since I was a child, I have been crazy about the game of soccer. It has been more than a sport to me, creating an escape from the pressures of every day life. Regardless of my unconditional passion for this game, I have a hard time getting a handle on the movie “Green Street Hooligans.” Soccer is not just a sport that these people play or watch, but it is a way of life to them. The hooligans in this movie are representative of the firms across Europe, which are organized groups similar to gangs in the United States. In the movie, there is one firm for every team in the European premier league in the United Kingdom. Firms not only provoke fights with each other, but they also plan fights after particular games. The movie portrays the Green Street Elite, a West Ham firm in the United Kingdom, as a group of men that is absolutely crazy. In some scenes, they are completely outnumbered by other firms, but they never back down because it is all about reputation to hooligans. Although there has been some controversy over the amount of violence portrayed in the film opposed to the actual amount that exists in firms, I expect real members of such firms to be just as passionate about what they do.

The study of anthropology is the investigation of differences between cultures, which can be viewed as making sense of the unfamiliar. I feel that many people in the United States would have a difficult time understanding these firms because soccer is not very big in our country. For starters, the name of this sport is different in our country than in any other. We refer to the game as soccer, whereas every other country calls it football. Baseball is considered an American sport, which the main characters even reference in the movie. There is a scene where an American argues with the leader of the Green Street Elite, claiming that baseball is the best sport. He states that a pitcher from the Red Sox can throw at over 90 MPH, but the firm’s leader is far from impressed, laughing in his face.



Throughout this blog, I plan to establish the history of firms around the world and establish what they are like outside the film. I will research news stories about firms, and conduct an interview of a person who has witnessed the fighting. Ultimately, I hope to understand why one would want to become a hooligan.

Alexander, Lexi, dir.
2004 Green Street Hooligans. 108 min. Warner Bros. Entertainment. Hollywood.