The Geezers' Guide to Football by Dougie Brimson

Author:Dougie Brimson [Brimson, Dougie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Soccer
Publisher: Category C Publishing
Published: 1998-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Part Four - The Bad Lads

Chapter 15 - The Hooligans

Chapter 15

The Hooligans

Much mention has already been made in this book, of hooligans and the whole subject of hooliganism, and so the time has come explain who and what these people are.

As a geezer, you will spend most of your time inside grounds trying to wind up the opposing fans. That is your mission within scheme of things. Gestures such as ‘the biggie’ (see annex B ) together with some of the more colourful songs you will sing every match day, are perfect for achieving this. However, even though you may occasionally ask them to ‘Come on, then!’, this actually is the very last thing you want. After all, if they get anywhere near you, they may actually make contact and believe me that can hurt. A lot. Similarly, while either running around, or ‘lunging’ (see annex B ) are both designed to enable you to actually hit someone else, you would never want to do it, would you? I mean, what’s the point?

But for hooligans the point is that they do actually want to hit other people and they want to hurt them. Not just to damage them physically, but to hurt their reputation as well. And that’s what hooliganism is all about. Reputation. The knowledge that you are a member of one of the, if not the, worst, meanest, most intimidating group of football fans in the country. It is a fiercely fought battle and the skirmishes go on week in, week out all over the country.

Hooligans are often regarded simply as thugs. People who, it they were not at football causing mayhem, would be out mugging old ladies or stealing charity collection boxes. This is bollocks. Although there are undoubtedly members of the hooligan fraternity who have very low moral standards, the majority of them are simply football fans who have taken their support for their particular club to a level that most cannot understand. As a geezer, your love of your club should be greater than most, but if you can imagine taking it up to a level beyond even yours, then that’s hooliganism. And it is the passion felt on this level that drives people on to fight for the reputation of their club. That’s ‘fight’ as in ‘violence’. This violence is itself on a on a number of different levels. For example, running around pushing and shoving people inside a ground is one thing, but planning ambushes on coaches or public houses miles from the stadium is something else. Yet both are done regularly and are classed as hooliganism.

To the outsider, the whole hooliganism culture may seem a pathetic, futile and very childish thing to be involved in, and it is. There is absolutely no point to it and there is certainly no rational reason why one person would want to physically harm another individual simply because he supports another football team. But, as we all know, football is totally irrational at any level and

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