Episode 1 Football Fight Club

This programme contains strong language

This is a street fight, caught on camera,

between two groups of rival football supporters.

The lads involved are a new generation of young hooligans,

responsible for troubling, violent incidents in recent years.

The media will have you believe that football violence

is on the decline, it's dying, it's dead.

I'm doing it eight years.

There's more now than when I started eight years ago...

without a shadow of a doubt.

CHANTING

The authorities are waging war against football violence.

But for an increasing number of teenagers,

it's become a lifestyle choice.

There's just nothing better. Nothing better than having a fight.

You don't even know if you're going to get bottled,

you don't know if you're going to get glassed,

that's the exciting bit about it.

We aren't idiots. It's just, at that moment,

you couldn't give a shit about the consequences.

This is the first time they've allowed cameras

to follow them across a season...

home and away.

SHOUTING AND GLASS BREAKING

-INTERVIEWER:

-Do you think you're a thug?

I think I'm a lovely, lovely geezer.

We meet the country's most hardcore young fans...

as they face up to a choice between football or their family.

Can't be running around doing all this when you've got a kid and that,

but it sort of pulled me back in.

My family's at their last legs with me.

My life's been ruined so many times from football.

-I banned him from everything...

-Yeah.

-..even watching football...

-Yeah.

-..but he didn't listen.

We get taken into the secretive network of football's fight club.

It's like going to a theme park, but it's free,

and it's ten times better.

SHOUTING

# Until Sally I was never happy

# I needed so much more

# The rain clouds, oh, they used to chase me

# Down they would pour... #

I support Bury Football Club.

Erm... Go with a bunch of lads

who call ourselves the Interchange Riot Squad.

IRS.

CHANTING

Ten miles north of Manchester is the market town of Bury.

THEY CHANT

Home to 18-year-old Paul and his close friends,

who all support their local club, Bury FC.

At football, there is no better way of releasing the stress

that you've built up during the week...

THEY CHANT

..which is a bit ironic for the kids, cos, you know,

the most stress they've had is a bit of homework that they can't do,

but, you know, it's still tension that needs to get released.

Alleys, alleys, get round to the alleys! Alleys!

Bury's young lads are part of a nationwide network

of active hooligans.

There's over 100 professional football league clubs

in the country.

Many have violent supporters organised into firms,

with two types - an older firm, and a young one,

keen to make a name for themselves.

Back away, now! Move away, now!

What's it been like this season for Bury?

What, football? On or off the pitch?

-INTERVIEWER LAUGHS

-Tell me whichever.

On the pitch, dreadful.

Off the pitch, amazing.

SHOUTING

Do you call yourself a hooligan?

No. We call ourselves football lads.

We're not violent until we see the other lads.

'In public, we're nice as pie.'

Dad, what was the score?

1-0. Last minute goal.

We'll stay up, easy.

Paul lives at home with his dad and brother,

all die-hard Bury supporters.

When was the first time you went to a Bury game?

1978, 21st of January.

Won 5-0 against Exeter.

Paul's been going to the football since he was 13,

after his dad first took him.

I didn't take an interest until I were, like, 12.

I just used to take him when he'd been naughty...as a punishment.

Does it worry you that it doesn't take much

-to lock people up these days?

-It does worry me.

It worries me every time he goes out the house, to be honest.

But, yeah, it does worry me.

They're not interested in having fanatical support

like they used to do.

To them, it's just another form of entertainment,

like maybe going to a comedy club or going to see a gig or something.

It could never be like that for me

and most people I know at the football, really.

It's just something that's as natural as breathing.

There's only sort of two groups of like loyal fans of a football club -

there's us and then there's the ones that complain about us.

When he's not at the football,

18-year-old student Paul studies engineering at college.

People are going to wonder

whether you're sort of wasting your potential.

Not at all. You're not wasting your potential

by going to the football and kicking off

cos what you're doing is you're surrounding yourself

-by

-BLEEP

-really loyal people.

The constant label of "football lad" is annoying

because it doesn't determine who they are in any way.

People might be surprised that, you know, there's doctors,

teachers, whatever, you name it, you know, there's a football lad.

They are just normal people who go to the match,

have a drink and sometimes get involved in a fight.

CHANTING AND CLAPPING

In nearby Manchester, the city is divided by loyalty

to the two biggest Premier League clubs in the country.

Manchester City is one of the richest clubs in the world.

But off the pitch, their reputation has been made

by their youth hooligan firm.

That's Latin.

I can't even pronounce it, but it translates to "pride in battle".

It's City's motto on our badge, Pride in Battle.

I'm 24 now.

I've been doing it for eight years now, since I've been 16.

Has it been good?

HE LAUGHS

It's been interesting.

It's not been boring, I'll tell you that.

It's definitely not been boring, no.

After leaving school at 16,

Carl rose up the ranks of a hooligan firm

called the Blazing Squad.

The first proper fight that we had when we got together as a firm,

that was 2007.

At 18, Carl had the chance to be a professional boxer,

but chose to run the Blazing Squad instead.

He's made them into one of the country's most feared youth firms.

We set out there to get a reputation

as "them kids from Manchester, Man City, decent lads."

And I think we've done it. I think we've definitely done it.

People come to Manchester with us and know what they'll get.

I think it's good. I don't think it's bad, really. It's good.

Cos since he runs the firm, there's a lot of people

that want to be your friend just to impress Carl,

and show respect-wise and stuff like that.

It's what it's about.

-You've still got your Adidas on, I see.

-Yeah.

You can still see the blood stains on the front,

even though they're red.

-Who's is that?

-What?

-Is that yours?

-It's not my blood.

HE LAUGHS

Could be BLEEP anyone's.

Man United, Everton, Stoke, who knows?

It's me that done that. HE LAUGHS

-His seventh pizza of the day.

-Eighth.

Carl's unemployed and lives alone.

He has a three-year-old daughter, Katie, who he sees every week.

Hello, Katie.

What do cows do? Moo.

-What does a sheep do?

-Baa.

Mum and Dad, they've always known what I've done.

I never try to hide from it. I wouldn't say they're proud of it,

but they just, they know it's what I do. It is what it is.

I don't think they're impressed with taking me to hospital

to get stitched back together and that,

but...it is what it is. They know it's what I do.

They'd probably rather I didn't do it,

but nothing they can do about it, do you know what I mean?

The fighting side, ever since I was a little kid, that's all I've done.

It's just a natural thing. Always loved having a scrap, yeah,

so football does sort of come natural to me.

For the past eight years, Carl's dedicated his life to the firm,

but with his notoriety comes police attention.

This is from a Man United footballing intelligence officer.

"We continued to patrol the housing estate and came across four males,

"two of which were sporting cuts and bruises to their head.

"Counsel had blood on his face,

"what appeared to be a large gash on his head, his clothes were dirty.

"One of the males was a United lad.

"He showed me his hand, which had part of his finger severed.

"The United lad then stated it had been bitten off,

"but he said he did not know who did this

"and did not wish to make a complaint about the matter."

Carl has received the highest penalty for football offences,

a banning order.

It prevents him from attending games, travelling abroad,

or going into town on match days.

To give you the size of the thing,

Victoria Station to Piccadilly, that's bang on a mile,

so obviously you can see the scale

of how far we're banned when it's a match day.

Breaching his ban will land him in prison for up to six months.

Is it all locked?

These are our good lads. They're from the Blazing Squad.

-These are our younger lads.

-I'm 19, me.

-I'm 20.

I'm 20. I started when I was 16. I'm 20 now.

These lads are regularly involved in football violence,

so will only speak with their identities hidden.

It's United's estate as well, this, the little fuckers.

These are the country's most prolific football offenders,

but they don't see it the same way.

We get treated like scumbags anyway and I don't fucking know why.

Really, at the end of the day,

we're only meeting people who are exactly the same as us,

just off different estates, from different parts of the country,

who want exactly the same as us, to go to the match with their boys,

meet us and have a good scrap. A good, fair fight like.

The general public, they think hooligans or lads,

casuals, whatever, they'll go to the game,

anyone from a different town, different colour, whatever,

we'll just attack 'em for no reason. We don't fucking do that.

We don't want to fight random people,

we want to fight the firms, and that's what we do.

The lads use the estate next to the stadium to attack rival firms

as they're escorted to and from the ground.

We've had a line of lads from the road all the way down to there.

You don't run, you just quick walk to the main road.

As soon as you get to the main road, bang, steam straight into 'em.

The police don't know what's hit 'em, the firm don't,

you've got the element of surprise. Two or three seconds

and everyone's like, "What the fuck's going on?"

The police have got a dilemma. "Right, do we break the escort

"and push these kids back who've just run into us?

"Do we stand there and keep these lads in the escort?

"Split half and half and do both and risk losing the whole thing?"

The police don't know what to do.

You can feel 'em coming down the road

cos you've been watching 'em all the way and thinking,

"Right, we need to pick our moment." And then when you're here,

and you just know, oh, it's fucking mint.

There's nothing like it.

It's just, you just want to be out there fighting,

but obviously scared about getting nicked, getting bit off the dogs.

That's all part of the buzz, though. It's mint.

You won't ever get a buzz like you do when you come to the football.

That's the best buzz you'll ever get in your whole life.

And it's a drug. I'm addicted to it. I am, I'm a drug addict.

Serious, I am. I'm a drug addict, me.

When I've not got all this on, I'm an everyday guy, I work,

I work for a living, I pay me taxes, but I'm an addict.

I tried stopping for a while, for a good few months,

and I was literally, I was just depressed.

I mean, I've done it for how long, four years?

And I won't be going away from this like

until the day I'm in my coffin, that's it.

Hey.

I love how this is coming along.

-Innit?

-Look at mine. Mine's pathetic.

Yeah, it's all patchy. Mine's just sort of stopped being patchy.

Mine doesn't even grow there. Mine just grows under there, look.

I'm just going to grow a goatee, mate.

In Bury, it's the week before the Interchange Riot Squad take on

archrivals York, one of the biggest games of their season.

They fucking hate us.

Yeah, they've got a lot of lads and they don't like us at all.

York's firm, the Nomad Society,

are planning to bring a large mob of lads.

It's a bit fucking ironic now cos, you know,

we're all too young to know the rivalry,

and all their young lot are too young to know the rivalry.

You know, we were all like fucking four-year-old at the time or summat.

Do you like me trainers?

Yeah, I actually do. Well nice.

Proper nice.

For football hooligans, the fashion culture that goes with it

is as important as the game.

Oh, that is bad. That is very nice.

70 quid as well.

Football lads call themselves "casuals"

and recognise each other by the clothes they wear.

Many will even shop for new clothes before a fight.

'Most people think we dress like idiots.'

That's a bit of the downfall of it really,

cos everyone sticks out like sore thumbs,

'and you get picked up.'

Oh, that is a cool coat, that.

200 quid, though.

That's the thing as well,

if you're spending all this money on these expensive clothes,

only to go and get pissed and fucking fight in them.

You fuck 'em up like nobody's business.

And I'm at that sort of shitty, mid stage cos, you know, I'm 18 now.

If I were 15, 16, I could rely on my parents to get me clothes,

but also I'm at college so I'm not working to go and buy them.

I need to be a lot more careful.

Even though I'm not. I'm still fucking 'em up.

That's the shirt I'm getting though.

Very nice shirt.

Nice chequers to hide me belly.

Never resist a bargain.

FANS CHANTING

I can't sleep the night before a big game, me.

I'm awake every hour thinking, "Yes,

"is it football time yet?"

You get up, have a shower, iron your gear, put your gear on,

have your brekkie and a cig and that.

Off you go.

And when you're walking to meet the boys, you know, it's like,

yes, it's football day.

THEY CHANT

If you were thinking about the consequences,

it wouldn't kick off because, you know,

we aren't idiots,

it's just at that moment

you couldn't give a shit about the consequences,

you couldn't give a shit about anything else.

A flash point for violence is before or after the game,

when firms have more chance of bumping into each other.

That one opportunity we have for it today to go off,

we've got to take that opportunity.

Cos if nothing happens, they're going to go home, "Oh, Bury's shit,

"Bury that, Bury didn't make a move." You know what I mean?

We're going to have that one opportunity today

and it's going to go.

Yeah. Get that camera out of our faces now. Oi.

After the game, both York and Bury fans are released from the ground.

At the same time.

-INDISTINCT SHOUTING

-It's the fucking police.

CHANTING

The police quickly step in to separate them...

SIRENS WAIL

..spoiling any chance of a fight for Paul and his friends.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

I didn't see fuck-all go off today.

Could hardly tell who anyone was anyway, it were that dark.

There were no chance about anything happening anywhere,

there were that many police.

It was a bit of a let down today

after what the olders bigged it up to be, like it were going to be this

massive Bury-York and it was going to be going off everywhere.

We were all ready for it, and it were fuck-all really, it was shit.

I've seen small teams from London come up with more than...

and make more of a presence than they did today.

They were pretty appalling today, them lot. Too many police.

You can't do nothing when the police are about, can you?

Last season, the police clamped down on football-related public disorder

with 600 new banning orders and nearly 3,000 arrests.

It costs an estimated £25 million a year to police football matches.

But only half the costs are covered by clubs.

You fucking want some?

Leave it! Leave it!

In London alone,

18,000 officers were deployed for Premiership matches.

..Fucking bastards.

Despite the police clamp-down, Man City's firm,

the Blazing Squad, remains active.

In recent years,

Carl's archrival has been Championship side Bolton Wanderers.

It's a rivalry that has led to an unlikely friendship.

I'm off to meet my mate.

Well, I use the term "mate" loosely, but you know, I'm off to meet

a mate from the Bolton firm and have a few beers.

I've known him for about four or five years now.

Once you become mates, you trust each other, you can

arrange stuff better, and that's the way I like to go about stuff.

Some people do it that way, others don't.

Others think it's fucked up, meeting the bears from other firms,

but it's just the way I choose to go about it.

Kirk is from Bolton's youth firm, the Cuckoo Boys.

GLASS SMASHES

SIREN WAILS

Hello. All right. What's that hat you've got on?

-What?

-What's that hat?

It's the London look, it's my flat cap.

That's shocking, that, mate.

When you farmers catch up with us in two or three years,

-you'll be all wearing these as well.

-No-one wears them.

-What?

-No-one wears them from Manchester.

I know, that's why I put it on, to look different.

You're mad.

You're mad.

To this day, Carl and Kirk still argue over who won their last fight

which took place in a nearby pub.

We didn't come in.

We didn't come in so we didn't go out.

-You should have come out.

-No, but you wouldn't let us get out.

We didn't step back and say, "Yeah, come out."

You know what I mean?

And it only finished cos the police come.

No-one can really say they won that.

It's a draw, isn't it?

It's a point apiece, which... It gives us 3-1.

I like the way you make it into a little football match.

Well, we're 3-1 up, aren't we?

How many times have you come to Manchester, Kirk?

-Never.

-LAUGHS

Do I need to say anything else?

-No, never. We've never been.

-Never.

-I've seen the back of your feet. That's what I've seen.

-My feet?

Running like that, in the distance. And you know we did.

That's why there's so much rivalry, because you can't get over that

a shitty little club like Bolton, with no lads, done the mighty City

on numerous occasions.

It's annoying.

It's pretty annoying, because we've run around the West Ham,

Everton, Stoke, United, Birmingham, Napoli, fucking all this list,

and then we've been done by Bolton more than once.

-So does that put us above you, then?

-No,

it just shows that anyone can do anyone on the day, doesn't it?

You come to Manchester and run us, I'd love to see that.

-Where?

-Anywhere you want.

Don't wear that hat, right.

LAUGHS I'm fucking wearing it!

Just have your bald head out and we'll sort it.

Me and you will cross paths that day.

Oh, we will sort it, yeah, defo.

Carl and Kirk are part of a much bigger network of football casuals,

spanning the entire country.

To avoid police scrutiny, they've taken the fight online.

You seen these pictures?

That's three of us lot, going into a group at Brighton,

two Spurs landing punches at the same time into the Brighton lads.

It was a good day, that.

In this photo, I was about 19 years old.

19 years old. Fresh young face, skinhead, typical football look.

24-year-old Dante is the top boy from Tottenham Hotspur's

youth firm, known as the Yid Army.

He's been friends on social media with Carl for four years.

Dante's a Tottenham lad. He's the Yid's main kid.

He's been doing it about the same time as me, since about I was six.

What's he like?

He's all right, I mean, he's from London

so he loves talking shit like they all do, but nah, he's all right.

It's not his fault, he's a bit simple.

They're simple up North, in't they?

By themselves on a computer.

The lads use social media to keep in touch and share videos of fights.

Connecting with rival firms online

makes it much easier to organise themselves.

If Carl wants to play someone down South

and he hasn't got a contact, obviously he can use

the people that he talks to as a contact to get another number.

Same as me up North, if I'm... We might get Bury in the Cup or

something, and cos Man City have got a link with Bury,

I can ring up Carl and go, "Have you got one of Bury's boys that

"I can sort something out with, or I can pass the number onto something?"

It's networking, it's like a business.

Like you got a commercial chambers,

that's where sort of businesspeople go and network,

football people network

and the youth of today, like, they've sort of got Facebook and

other things like BBM and whatnot to sort of do their networking on.

Dante has three previous convictions for football violence.

YELLING AND SHOUTING

Together we've got a combined sentence of 20 years, so...

they put our mug shots up,

it was big news down there. It was on the BBC News, so...

yeah.

He was released from prison just four weeks ago

and is now determined to keep out of trouble.

He has proposed to his girlfriend, Harley.

We met like three times before we actually got together,

but I didn't really talk to Dante,

because I knew he was trouble.

LAUGHS

June 2015 we're going to get married...

if he behaves.

Yeah. That means I'm not allowed to go to football,

not allowed to sort of get involved in any trouble.

-So I'm keeping my head down.

-I banned him from everything.

-Yeah.

Even watching football.

But he didn't listen.

And you're not allowed out by yourself

because you can't be trusted, can you?

-Yeah.

-Always getting into trouble.

Football violence ain't paying the bills.

-No, it don't, does it?

-No.

Hmm.

To me, I think it's stupid.

I think, "How can you be addicted to going and having a fight with

"a bunch of people that support a different football team?"

I will never understand it fully.

So it's time for me to be...

-Grow up?

-Grow up more, yeah.

-Grow up but, like...

-Grow up.

..being a football boy, it'll never leave ya.

You know what I mean? It'll never leave ya.

And if we ever have a row or something,

and there's a big game on, I might just bolt to London.

I'm joking. It's a joke. I'm winding you up but that's the risk.

That's the risk. Cos you are a football boy

and it's sort of, it's in your blood.

Yeah, but things are more important than football.

-Aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

The police have successfully prosecuted

some of the country's most prolific football offenders.

But hooliganism continues to thrive.

SHOUTING AND CHANTING

Premier League firms are turning to the lower leagues as feeder clubs

to recruit talented new fighters.

The lower leagues is great.

You sort of hand-pick the best ones,

and sort of like... It's like a youth training scheme.

They make their way up to the big guns, you know?

BANGING

Man City's Blazing Squad is affiliated to

Bury's Interchange Riot Squad from League Two.

One of the Bury lads Carl rates highly is 17-year-old Aaron.

I've been boxing for like eight, nine years now,

and I've had quite a lot of amateur fights but, to be honest,

it's a totally different kettle of fish.

Not like when you're in a street

and someone's trying to smash a fucking bottle over your head.

Which is better?

Street fighting, to get more of a kick, more of an adrenaline rush.

Fucked already.

Glad it's him doing it, not me.

Do you see yourself as having

a mentoring roll to Aaron's generation?

I do.

Possibly, yeah, but that's probably for them,

for younger people to answer rather than me.

Possibly, yeah, possibly.

I think it does massively, like - they're in charge,

if you know what I mean? Like at school there's a teacher in charge,

when we go with him, we've got to listen to him,

and take everything on board, like.

Not much to know but,

do you know what I mean,

you need to know where there's a line and stuff?

It's not so much taught, it's just people see things,

and they'll follow suit.

But you don't say, "You've got to do this or that."

I just watch you myself and do it, do you know what I mean?

You just take it on board.

I think, it's a good laugh, innit?

It's summat to do every weekend.

Some of the best days you'll have out are with the football lads.

Recently, Aaron has let his training slip

and spent more time at the football than boxing.

Oh, he's got a natural talent for the sport, definitely.

He's got a choice whether he wants to pursue a career in boxing,

and he's got to like, basically,

cut his footballing antics out.

If he doesn't do it now, he's not going to do it.

He's at the age now, now is the time for him to switch on.

And what do you think he's going to do?

God knows.

INDISTINCT CHATTER INSIDE

Today, Man City are playing away from home.

I got disqualified.

What, before the fight or after

-the fight or what?

-In the fight.

-In the fight?

LAUGHS

Carl has his own plans to evade the police

and banning restrictions.

Today there's about fucking 20 of us,

going on our own little awayday somewhere for the beer and that.

On the morning of an awayday, you're just proper buzzed up for it.

You've waited for it for ages, you've fucking not slept the night before

because you're proper excited, so just ready to go now. Yeah.

It's 17-year-old Aaron's first awayday with the Blazing Squad

and a chance to prove himself.

Doesn't matter how old you are,

if you get stuck in, you get stuck in.

Do your parents know what you get up to?

Not really.

She knows of me doing it,

but she doesn't know when I'm going all the time, if you know what

I mean, like? When I go, I just say I'm going out with my mates.

I don't say I'm going to football, she'd be pissed off.

Why?

She don't want me coming home with fucking stitches across me face.

Carl is taking his firm on a 200-mile round trip.

-SHOUTING

-To meet the infamous Zulus.

This would be a major scalp for the Blazing Squad.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS

When the other lads turn up, there's a problem.

They feel they have too much at stake

and decide not to be filmed on their awayday.

Football violence ain't going to die. It's not going anywhere

but the police are definitely making it a lot harder.

There's just different ways of going about it,

they are more smart about doing stuff these days.

Got to be a bit more clever.

Aren't you worried about getting hurt?

Not really.

If it happens, it happens.

You come back, don't you?

Because you've got your mates backing you up, haven't you?

It's never like ten people just jumping on you,

it never gets that out of hand.

It's like fucking going to a theme park, but it's free.

And it's ten times better.

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

CARL: The fights in the Premier League for me,

from my point of view, I'd say

are a lot more serious, a lot more organised, and a lot more violent.

There's just nothing better.

Nothing better than having a fight.

You don't know if you'll get your head kicked in,

if you'll kick someone's head in,

you don't know if you'll get bottled, if you'll get glassed.

That's the exciting bit about it.

The guy whacked a bottle across me face and then I felt me nose

bobbing up and down, hitting against me hand.

You could see right into me nose, see everything,

it'd cut right through.

Detached retina, broken nose, teeth knocked out,

shattered cheekbones, fractured eye sockets,

blah, blah, blah.

I don't see it as that bad because, you know,

I knew what I were there for.

17-year-old new recruit Aaron has returned from his first awayday

with Man City's Blazing Squad.

What was it like?

Best football day I've ever had, really.

Everything just went perfect.

Got off the coach, no police nowhere, had it off,

and they disappeared.

My first game with City really, the first time I had it off with

'em, but I got stuck straight in,

and pretty happy with myself, to be honest.

I couldn't... I was not running off

and then sitting on the coach

for three-and-a-half hours with the lads after it

knowing that I'd been a shitbag.

It's the week before Spurs take on one of their local rivals, Chelsea.

A game that Dante is banned from attending.

What's happening?

LAUGHS

The Black Yids are about today, in't they?

LAUGHS

Dante is visiting his old manor for the first time

since getting out of prison.

LAUGHTER

Is it nice being back in the area, though?

Does it bring lots of memories?

I'm smiling, you know, I ain't stopped smiling

since I come out of White Hart Lane station.

Best days of my life.

Eight, nine years old, I used to go to the games with my uncle

and we'd sit in the pubs with the older lot.

And I'd see all their clothes and think I wanted to dress like them

and hear all their stories and stuff,

and sort of... I really liked the whole scene.

When my old man died, it made me more violent, so yeah, in a sense,

yeah, cos I didn't properly deal with it, I didn't speak to

anyone about it so, sort of just fucking go mental at football.

THEY CHANT

It is like a family over at Spurs.

Some get on closer than others but, obviously,

there's a lot of love.

-Yiddos!

-Yiddos!

OTHERS CHANT

We've been Tottenham fans for all our life.

Tottenham Yid for life.

Yes! LAUGHS

And it will never change.

-Yids! We're the Yids! Yids!

-Yids for life!

Real Yids.

From south side, south side.

Too strong. LAUGHS

Del was the top boy in the 1980s and acted as a mentor to Dante.

Those days were nice, man.

Those days were good.

It's just a different era now. Just a different era.

It's sad.

It's sad, but it's never going to end,

football violence is going to be here all the time.

Obviously when I was coming up, you look up to boys like Del

and they give you the opportunity to come through.

But Dante's always been the main boy.

I watched him coming up as a kid.

He used to spin people over left, right and centre.

I had my eye on him. And the reason why I'm saying this,

I don't want him to spin me over right now, yeah?

-LAUGHS

-Sweet.

Have you seen me passport?

It were on mantelpiece.

I saw it somewhere.

I think I've found it.

Tonight, Paul is meeting up with his mate Stuart for the first time

since the York game.

With money tight, it's been months since he last went to a match.

It were really fun yesterday, I enjoyed it.

Yeah. I need to go back, me.

Need to go where?

Back to football. I'm fucking skint though, aren't I?

The Bury lads have just got back from an awayday to London.

-Guess what has just been released?

-What?

"Two arrested as football violence breaks out at AFC Wimbledon.

"A police officer is to have been assaulted as violence broke

"out yesterday at a football match between AFC Wimbledon

"and Bury at Kings Meadow.

"Two men were arrested, one for assaulting a police officer,

"and another man for affray."

-Are they both Wimbledon?

-Yeah. No Bury got nicked yesterday.

Got to have a kicking at some point.

There's nothing better than getting a kicking, is there?

Yeah.

Yeah, there's NOT getting a kicking, that's all right.

It's not. It's boring.

After weeks away from the football, Paul has started having

second thoughts about what people are going to think of him.

Well, the thing that pisses me off,

yeah, is people are going to watch this

and think, "This is my judgment of him, this is what I think he's like.

"He goes to football, he kicks off,

"and he has no other life except from that. He's a dickhead."

You don't, though.

Yeah, I do. I like guitar, I write music...

Yeah? I study fucking stuff, you know, I study stuff.

Wood building? LAUGHS

No, I study science and that.

You think about things too much, Paul.

If you stop thinking about things and just not think about things...

If all you did all your life was just work

and then go football, you're a bit fucking boring, aren't you?

That's all I do. Work, shag, bit of drugs, do football.

Right, you've got "do drugs" and "shag" there. They're two very...

Oh, you don't shag, do you?

No, exactly, so that's why I learnt guitar.

-LAUGHS Was that your replacement?

-Yeah.

Class.

CHANTING

Football lads will go to extreme lengths in pursuit

of their lifestyle.

Even taking them abroad.

The football hooligan network has gone international.

Fights are organised on a much larger scale than in the UK.

British lads have started travelling to Europe

to join in with these foreign firms.

Carl is in Ireland to visit his friend...

..Paul from, Dublin's biggest club, Shamrock Rovers.

They first met in Manchester, when Paul came to a game.

Since then, Carl travels to Ireland

when Paul's firm take on their fiercest rivals, the Bohemians.

CHANTING

The Dublin derby dates back a century and often leads to violence.

SIREN WAILS

In Ireland, there is no restriction like banning orders to curb

the rise of football hooligans.

It's basically like England in the '80s.

We're not behind in style,

but what we're behind in is police presence and stuff like that.

If you get arrested before the game,

you're in the cells for probably an hour, an hour or two.

Probably about two hours, and you're let out before midnight.

I don't think anyone in the Republic of Ireland

has been locked up for football violence.

-Never.

-Yet, anyway.

With an hour before kick-off,

the lads are holed up in a pub close to Bohemians' ground.

They don't have to wait long before the welcoming committee finds them.

YELLING AND SHOUTING

Give me my jacket. My jacket.

Go, go, go, go!

Get the fuck...

Don't do that! Don't do that!

YELLING

Come on!

SIRENS WAIL

The Irish Garda arrive to restore order.

Get up! Get up!

They send Carl and the lads scattering.

Ambush! Ambush, cross the lane! Cross the lane!

Fucking ambush!

Shamrock Rovers go hunting for revenge.

But in the confusion, it is difficult to recognise who's who.

INDISTINCT COMMENTS

-You all right?

-Yeah. Nice little thing there. Seen that?

-Is that a truncheon?

-Yeah.

Nasty thing there. You want to see the best? Look at that.

Little bastards.

SIREN WAILS

We've piled out the pub and gone, "Fucking come on, then!"

Fucking ran over to them and they all started backing away and that.

And that's when the Garda pulled up.

Their Garda's their fucking police, isn't it?

About three or four vans pulled up. No interest in nicking no-one,

straight out with the truncheons, just smash, smash, smash.

It were similar to England, obviously, on a smaller scale,

but the police was a lot naughtier, I'll give 'em that.

That's not the worst beating I've had off the police,

but it's in top fucking five worst beatings I've had off the police.

That was a bit naughty.

It's a fucking laugh. That's what it's about, innit?

It's all fun and games, innit? Do you know what I mean?

Bit of a sore head and finger,

but I don't fucking moan about it. Do you know what I mean?

It's all a laugh, innit? It's all a laugh.

CHANTING

Carl's not the only one injured.

The Shamrock lads have been hit hard.

You need to go to a hospital and get that...

You're not going to go now?

CHEERING

They may have been ambushed,

but on the pitch Shamrock Rovers win the game 3-1.

CHANTING

Can you see them?

Are we hiding?

Back in England, Carl's meeting up

with his three-year-old daughter, Katie, and ex-girlfriend, Harriet.

They got together when they were 19,

and Katie's birth put his football lifestyle into perspective.

When she first fell pregnant, and when the time she was being born,

I thought, like, "Bit old to be doing this now, I've got a kid,

"I need to knock it on the head, I need to grow up," basically.

I lasted for about two or three months,

and I just ended up back doing it, so I don't...

I tried, albeit a half-hearted effort to stop, but I did try, but...

..no.

I think violence doesn't solve everything,

but it's his own...

Carl, it's up to him, innit, what Carl does? I can't stop him.

Are you going to retire?

CARL LAUGHS Erm...

I always said, "I'll do it till she's born," and I carried on.

Said, "I'll I do it till I'm banned," carried on.

Said, "I'll do it till I get ten years and I'll call it a day."

I'm on eight years now.

I'll come up with another excuse when I get to ten years.

I don't know. I've no idea.

I can't keep doing it for ever, obviously, but...

..I don't know.

Since I've, like, left school and that, it's all I've done,

I don't know anything else, it's all I've done, sort of thing.

Match day programme! £3 a programme!

CHANTING: Tottenham! Tottenham! Tottenham! Tottenham! Tottenham!

It's March. The police have drafted in extra officers

as Chelsea take on rivals, Spurs.

MAN GRUNTS

But Spurs' top lad, Dante, is fighting the urge to go.

It's one of them ones - I hate them more than anyone, so...

it's one of them I'd love to be out for it,

but I've done prison for it,

I've done 18 months for it, for that fixture, so it's red-hot.

CHANTING

All the energy, all the built-up energy that I might have had

if I didn't come, it'd want to be released,

maybe in a negative way, it's released in here.

-This might be some Chelsea

-BLEEP!

-HE ROARS

-You Chelsea

-BLEEP!

HE LAUGHS

For the first time in his life,

Dante is facing a future without football.

I mean, three prison sentences later, the buzz ain't there no more.

It's not there, so it's sort of the buzz wants to be there...

..but then sort of start remembering about being behind the door,

cos... I mean, I can do the prison sentences,

but it's my family that can't.

So it's selfish of me to want to go and have a five minute row...

..for the sake of my five minute buzz.

CHANTING

In Manchester, West Ham have made the 150-mile trip up from London

and so has their firm.

You all right, mate?

Yeah, you all right? Whereabouts are you now?

When you know where you're going and that, just give us a text

and I'll sort it out.

West Ham's firm, the ICF,

have a notorious reputation from the 1980s,

which their young casuals are keeping alive.

Carl is arranging to meet them far away from the ground.

Who's coming, Carl?

There's about 50 of them coming, all local lads as well.

Fucking loads of them.

Yeah, but that was what the Zulus were supposed to do.

Best football day I've ever had,

it was one of the best days I've ever had.

There's a good chance of us

losing the fight today on pure fact of numbers.

There's a lot of new kids coming today

and that's what we've put out, I have to say.

CHANTING

Although outnumbered, Carl has never turned down a fight before

and he isn't going to start now.

With numbers dwindling,

the fight is still going ahead with just four on each side...

..but arranging a meeting place

away from the police is proving difficult.

I'm here in Stockport now, mate.

Give us a text when you can. See you in a bit.

CHEERING

Man City have beaten West Ham in the match

but, miles away from the ground,

Carl's attempt to set up a meet has failed.

We've a hit a bad thing,

cos we don't really like know what's gone on,

like. His phone's off, whether he's just turned it off

cos he knows he don't want it, or whether his battery just died

or the police have got him, or whatever, I don't know.

But it's the fact we don't know why it's not on,

we don't know why we can't get hold of him,

that's the annoying thing, do you know what I mean?

We live to fight another day, don't we? Fuck it, we'll be all right.

You can go and have your bacon butty and feed your dog.

-Yeah.

-THEY LAUGH

-See yous laters.

-See you laters.

See you in a bit.

CAR HORN BEEPS

You all right, mate?

Oh, I'm buzzing, that was top, that one.

Yeah, you can do, mate, yeah, see you in a sec.

Days afterwards, the missed opportunity to fight West Ham

is playing on Carl's mind.

It's a lot of fucking about and it's hard work, it is, of course.

And like 70%, 80% of the time it's shit.

Nothing happens, the police get in the way. You can't organise

yourselves, they can't organise themselves. It's crap.

I come home and say, "Why are we fucking doing this?

"What's the fucking point, it's shit?"

But for them few times, like the Zulu thing the other day,

them few times it goes perfect, everything goes to plan,

and you think, "Ah, this is fucking worth it."

I see us as...

Here you go, they're coming to get me.

Look, here they are, they're coming for me.

The police are outside. I hope I've not breached my ban again.

CARL LAUGHS

Fuck that. Come away from the window.

I'm not answering the door to them.

I told you they always come round for me.

No! Thank fuck for that. It's gone.

DOGS BARK

Do you think you could run the firm one day?

Yeah, I'm smart enough and game enough but, to be honest,

I wouldn't really want to. It's too much hassle, you've got to arrange

everything, you've got to make sure everyone's doing everything.

I get pissed off too easy,

cos it's not easy work when you've got a big group of lads

and they're all chanting and getting pissed and making noise.

CHANTING

It's the end of the season.

Aaron and Bury's Interchange Riot Squad are in York

for one last big awayday.

But one member of the firm, Paul, is nowhere to be seen.

He's decided to take a break from the firm...

..despite the temptation to go.

Me main thing at the minute is like really missing football.

Like, when you wake up, you look on Facebook and you see

everyone fucking putting statuses that they're going to the match

and that, and you're there, like, "Oh, why the fuck haven't I gone?"

# While there's still a fighting chance

# Why can't we just get up and go? #

And after a bit, you just don't want to fucking hear it, you're like,

"Don't talk to me about it," cos it pisses me off that, you know,

they went to match and I didn't, but, I don't know.

This is still good.

# My love just crumbles in my hands. #

Thank you.

APPLAUSE

You're in the country now, boy.

With Man City's season drawing to a close

Carl's gone to see his friend, Dante.

Dante has successfully stayed away from the football now

for over two months.

What's he doing with that plank of wood?

The red over there?

-Look, see he just chucked it!

-Here he goes now, look.

Voice sounds familiar. He was shouting then.

And then they just... They've run off completely now.

Don't get me wrong, every week I want to go out and be at it,

but it's to that point now where I've been locked up so many times.

With me it's, like, with my daughter, if she's not with me,

as sad as it is, as bad as it sounds, football's more important.

I want to go fight with the lads, I want to fucking...

Forget about it. All it takes is for you to have one row

and get caught on the camera and that, and then you're gone.

The worst I've been is remanded for that,

I've never been in prison, just remanded for a couple of days,

but that's more through luck than anything, though.

It is luck, though, innit? You know what I mean?

And people half-forget you when you get weighed off,

and it makes you put your priorities into perspective,

like, whether, what's...who's more important, your family or the firm?

Before I might have said the firm, like the mob,

but then now, you see, because when I got weighed off,

the only people that were there for me were my family.

You know what I mean?

-It's like a fucking castle, this bit!

-Yeah.

Nice.

Before leaving, Dante decides to take Carl

to show him his dad's grave.

I think he died when I was about 15, 16.

I can't remember the exact age what I was.

After that happened, like, I turned a bit fucking nutty, like.

I think someone's come to give it a visit.

-"Nick Hawkins, guitarist."

-Yeah.

What would your dad make of what you get up to now?

He wouldn't be happy about it, he didn't like the football,

he was more into his music.

But obviously his brother was into it. But, yeah, no,

he wouldn't like it at all.

I'd be getting in trouble. I probably wouldn't be doing it,

he'd probably be ringing me giving me ache.

My dad's not so much into football, do you know what I mean?

I think he's of the opinion where if you do summat, you know, for money,

and you get caught, well, fair enough sort of thing, you're a dick

for being caught, but I'd understand if you was doing it for money.

Whereas, like what Dante said, we do what we do, we don't

get money, it's like, you're a dick, you've not even got money

and you're getting in trouble - he doesn't get it.

Do you know what I mean? He doesn't understand what it's all about.

I fully understand why people say that about it not being for money,

cos it is fucking stupid when you get banged up

and it ain't for dough, but it's got its pros and cons.

It's like... I couldn't, like Dante said, you obviously understand

looking, but why are you fucking doing that, what's the point?

But at the end of the day, I can honestly say,

in the eight years I've been doing it now, eight and a bit years,

I've had the best time of my life.

And if someone said, "Carl, scrap the last eight years you did

"and we'll give you fucking a million quid," I'd say, "Fuck off."

No amount of dough can make me change the times I've had with my mates,

the bond we've got, the buzz we've had together, the memories

I've got, everything all up here, no-one can take that away from me.

I've got that for ever.

MUSIC: "Fools Gold" by The Stone Roses

# The pack on my back is aching

# The straps

# Seem to cut me like a knife... #