Suicide Squad: The Inside Story of a Football Firm by Andrew Porter

Author:Andrew Porter [Porter, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908479099
Publisher: Milo Books Ltd
Published: 2011-12-25T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE BLACK ARMY

Euro 92

My second European Championship. Three of us were making the trip by train – me, Ade and Simon – while the others were flying to Denmark and were to meet us at the ferry port in Malmo, Sweden.

We set off on the Saturday. The first game would be played on the Thursday so we had plenty of time to stop off at a few places and have a beer or two. On the way to Dover the conversations were about whether we would be let in or refused. We all had criminal records for football violence, we didn’t have any tickets for the games but we were willing to take the risks. If we did get in, beer was £8 a pint so it would be a very expensive couple of weeks on the piss.

I was amazed there were no checks on the ferry and we were all smiling waiting for the bar to open. We were the only England fans on board, which we thought would work in our favour. If there was a big mob of lads together getting rowdy, you could expect a warm reception off the Belgian police. Before the ferry docked we relieved the duty free shop of three bottles of Blue Label vodka for our train journey ahead. Again, no police were waiting, a flash of the passport and we were on foreign soil.

All you hear about from the media and the police on the run up to a major championship is about stopping people travelling and getting into these countries. Well, three convicted football hooligans arrived without a check or a policeman in sight. We checked the route and the train times, wanting out of Ostend as quickly as possible. We would go first to Hamburg, then to Copenhagen. It would be a long train journey to Hamburg so it was an opportunity to sleep. The idea was to use the train as a bed for the night and avoid the price of a hotel.

We arrived in Hamburg mid afternoon. The train to Copenhagen was twelve hours away so the only thing for it was a quick wash, brush the teeth, put the bags in left luggage and then a day on the piss. We settled down with a beer each in a nice little cellar bar when all of a sudden a bloke runs in covered in blood, screaming. We looked at each other wondering what the fuck was going on. All the other people in the bar seemed to ignore him but he made a beeline for us. Ade jumped up and said, “Fuck off, don’t get your blood on me,” then pushed the bloke to the floor. Then the barman came over, explained an ambulance had been called and told us to drink our beer. Then he went over to this man, picked him up, took him outside and dumped him on the pavement. He came back in and got a mop and bucket and started cleaning the floor as if nothing had happened.

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