Liverpool FC Forum

[The Ace1983]

Unfortunatly this element will always exist, and in some clubs it will be worse than others. Those with reputations like Chelsea, West Ham, Millwall and Cardiff are some of the more infamous clubs with dangerous and dispicable firms. There was a bomb threat in London one saturday and a group of thugs from Millwall (i think it was them) refused to evacuate a pub, standing up, giving the fascist salute and shouting "No surrender to the IRA". But these clubs have a great number of fans who want nothing more than to watch the footie, have a swift pint and watch MOTD like the rest of us. Because they support the same team as the idiots who want a rumble and a set of scars to make them feel hard, they often suffer.

The flip side of this, is that noble clubs firms, including ours, can get away with things that shouldn't be allowed to (and it pains me to say that). Even clubs with glowing reputations unwillingly harbour these head cases and steps really do need to be taken to stop them.

Films like Football Factory and Green Streets do glamourize the situation, trying to make out that there is this huge sense of honour in fighting. There ain't. I'm not saying that these films are responsible, the problem has been around since the sixties at least, and I thought the latter was quite good really, but they certainly don't help the matter.

These people are not football fans, and the 90 minutes on the pitch means very little to most of them. They are lost. They feel abandoned, lonely and insignificant and can't find a normal way to let it out. They want to belong to something and are often willing to do anything to feel needed, and after some time, the thrill of the fight becomes a drug. They can feel big in the pub afterwards and powerful in their own small minds. It's usually a hobby for those too thick to join the army or learn a trade or a profession. These are the useless bi-products of a society which doesn't need them. This may sound elitist, but it's not. These are the dreggs, not the unfortunate. The molluscs who suck in the muck and never produce pearls, not because they can't, but because they won't. They use football to feel important, so they enjoy hearing the news reports condemning them, just as an attention seeking child enjoys being told off. To call them animals, is a complement because animals have sense.

What can be done? Not much, because the nature of our world will always throw up these rebrobates and hooligans with brains only fit for medical science, and even then, there is little to go around. It isn't worth the real fans getting involved (unless other real fans or innocent bistanders are threatened), because you won't change them. Let them kill each other and there is some hope they will learn, but not much. I have no sympathy for them, only for those who they hurt, which can include their own families. If I could put them in cages, I would.

Red, I'm glad you got to see the match and weren't hurt. If anyone else considers this idea, against any team, it isn't worth celebrating because the guy behind you could be one of these shaved apes with nothing left to lose. A friend of mine, a chelsea fan, saw a Liverpool fan at the league cup final last year get the sh1t kicked out of him for celebrating in the wrong stand and one day, someone may well be killed. I said that I may have to resort to sitting in the West Ham end for the FA cup final, but I have a London accent, i'd go with one of my Hammer mates and I would make sure I stopped myself from celebrating if Liverpool score/win. It's not worth the risk. And Cardiff brings it's own problems because members of City's firm have been known to get into the stands and stir up trouble.   

I hope something can be done to stop them, and racism and violence and all the rest. There's no excuse for joking about Munich or Hillsborough or any other tradgedy, football related or otherwise. But these thugs will be around for some time yet, so take care.