Football firm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: navigation, search

A football firm is an organized gang – mostly supporting a football club – that engage in fights with firms supporting other clubs. The fights mostly take place far away from the football grounds to make it as hard as possible for police and other law enforcement to interrupt. Football firm violence has in many countries replaced the more unorganized violence related to sports, though in the public eye both forms of violence are considered hooliganism.

Contents

Clothing

Main article: Casuals

To avoid attracting the attention of police, many UK hooligans began to wear expensive European designer clothing in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Designers popular with UK football firms include Abercrombie & Fitch, Aquascutum, Burberry, Lacoste and many other. A BBC investigation in 2002 suggested that the most popular label of them all back then was Stone Island.

The culture revolving around the clothing style became known as Casual, and the wearers of designer clothing became known as Casuals.

UK football firms

England/Wales

Scotland


German football firms


Other football firms

Various teams from former Yugoslavia have strong and organized hooligan elements amongst its factions of fans. Many Greek and Turkish teams have also powerful elements of hooliganism amongst its fans. Polish hooligans (called szalikowcy, pseudokibice, or kibole) are likewise very strong. In Spanish-speaking countries hooligans are known as barras bravas, and they are particularly strong in South America and Mexico.

Argentina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Chile

Croatia

Denmark

The Netherlands

Russia

Serbia and Montenegro

Sweden


Relations with extreme right political groups

Football firms, especially southern and eastern European firms, are often linked with extreme right political groups. The firms of the following teams are well-known for their relations with extreme right political groups: Chelsea (Headhunters) (although chelsea's most famous hooligan Babs was black), Real Madrid (Ultra Sur), Lazio Roma (Curva Sud), Ferencvaros and Berlin club BFC Dynamo (Koma Kolonne).

Other firms are known for their multicultural make-up, like the firms of Arsenal (Gooners), Tottenham Hotspur(N17 yids), West Ham United (Inter City Firm), Ajax Amsterdam (F-Side) and Feyenoord Rotterdam (SCF). In the past there have been some occasions where Feyenoord supporters have shown up at demonstrations and get togethers of Neo Nazi groups to invoke clashes.

See also

Media

External links

Personal tools
In other languages