KHAN: Memoirs of Asian Football Casual

[Kitchandro]

In sure the disaster would of happened in some aspect due to over crowding and poor police tactics.. Still metal bars in standing areas... Pushing... People being crushed?

People were mainly crushed against the fences at the front. Fences were there for a reason.

Poor police tactics would have been influenced by their fear of unrest (panicking and funneling them all into the centre pens was the big one). They demonised all football fans just as many of them do now, and again, there was a reason for that.

[The Year Of The Fox]

No no, there IS something wrong with a 'good' punch up, it's the stuff of neanderthals. In fact, even those dumbers probably only fought for food and such.

You're the biggest whinger about modern football on here, what aren't you getting about how firms are one of the main route causes of it?

Most fights were outside the grounds not in. Theyve brought modern football to the stage it has as times change. Its no longer acceptable to fight amongst other fans, everyone takes a very dim view on it. My point is I'm not sure why. Sure its a bit mindless, but then they dont claim to be Oxford graduates. Providing innocent fans dont get caught up i dont see why the rest of us look on it with disdain to the extent we do.

Some of the people i know are actually great blokes who'd do anything for you. Not the sterotypical tits you see on Green St

[Rincewind]

Innocent people do get hurt though. In the City Centre mothers with pushchairs are pushed out the way. It draws in the thugs who do not care who they hurt. It is a game that is all. Why cannot it be watched then go home. Maqny years ago and I am talking before I was born there were up tpo 42/43000 at FS. No trouble as far as I know. Opposing fans stood together and if the opposition scored a goal both sets of fans used to applaud. If there was a difference of opinion about a ref's decision there wasn't a punch up over it. Children were passed down to the front to sit on the wall and both sets of fans had a pint with each other after the game if they could afford it.

I stopped going down at one point because of the trouble. Games I went to I left early so as to avoid trouble. I was at home before anything kicked off. I gave no reason in my behavior for the police to mistreat me. If I was told to go another direction I did. I did not argue. As I said fences were there because despite numerous requests to keep off the pitch it still happened. This is why seating was introduced.

This does not happen in rugby or basketball. I heard the atmosphere at basketball is great players mingling with fans and giving the kids lessons before the matc. Cannot see footballers of today doing this.

[Kitchandro]

Most fights were outside the grounds not in. Theyve brought modern football to the stage it has as times change. Its no longer acceptable to fight amongst other fans, everyone takes a very dim view on it. My point is I'm not sure why. Sure its a bit mindless, but then they dont claim to be Oxford graduates. Providing innocent fans dont get caught up i dont see why the rest of us look on it with disdain to the extent we do.

Some of the people i know are actually great blokes who'd do anything for you. Not the sterotypical tits you see on Green St

This post isn't even worth finding a facepalm picture for.

[Hugo Sanchez]

Innocent people do get hurt though. In the City Centre mothers with pushchairs are pushed out the way. It draws in the thugs who do not care who they hurt. It is a game that is all. Why cannot it be watched then go home. Maqny years ago and I am talking before I was born there were up tpo 42/43000 at FS. No trouble as far as I know. Opposing fans stood together and if the opposition scored a goal both sets of fans used to applaud. If there was a difference of opinion about a ref's decision there wasn't a punch up over it. Children were passed down to the front to sit on the wall and both sets of fans had a pint with each other after the game if they could afford it.

I stopped going down at one point because of the trouble. Games I went to I left early so as to avoid trouble. I was at home before anything kicked off. I gave no reason in my behavior for the police to mistreat me. If I was told to go another direction I did. I did not argue. As I said fences were there because despite numerous requests to keep off the pitch it still happened. This is why seating was introduced.

This does not happen in rugby or basketball. I heard the atmosphere at basketball is great players mingling with fans and giving the kids lessons before the matc. Cannot see footballers of today doing this.

clapping when forest scored ? Tigers fan i bet.

[skinnydipper]

Vienna,it means nothing to me.

[Zingari]

It means nothing to me either, and who the fook was Harvey Enner?

[skinnydipper]

It means nothing to me either, and who the fook was Harvey Enner?

On me mobe so no icons but that made me laugh out loud.

[flowwolf]

I think there was one member that was murdered a few years ago. At least I think he was a member. He was a tough nut around town. He was stabbed and from what I heard he managed to give chase his attacker a couple of streets before collapsing. I think I know his name but won't say it in case I am wrong. Initials TB.

T.B or not T.B that was the question.

[AnotherShitSeason]

I'm just a bit interested in how they were organised .

Were they formally initiated into the group and have proper membership ,or could anyone just hang around them and claim to be a baby squaddie ( or whatever individuals called themselves) ?

Are you for real?

[Zingari]

Yes , I'm a former Baby Squabbler member and I've had many a punch up with some of the hardest cruise firms around, including the Chelsea Haircutters , the West Ham Choo Choo Firm, Stoke City's Naughty Naughties and the Millwall Brushpushers.

So don't give me no lip .

:xmasbiggrin:

[skinnydipper]

I think they were called the Baby Squad because they learnt how to be a "firm" by reading Hooliganism For Dummies.

[Hugo Sanchez]

Big hard men slagging them off on a internet forum.

[flowwolf]

I thought they were called the Baby Squad because any sign of real trouble they shit themselves just like real Baby's ?

[The Year Of The Fox]

This post isn't even worth finding a facepalm picture for.

I think either 'get it' or 'got it' or you don't/didn't. I certainly know where they're coming from and to a point why it goes on still, but it doesn't mean I agree with all of it.

I'm not going to hate somone because they've changed (only to a point) the face of football. Fans have got worse, less vocal, less passionate and less interested and that's nothing to do with hooliganism. Indeed banning these fans has made atmospheres worse at matches. I'll hate the current type of stereotypical fan more than i ever will a stereotypical hooligan for making the game as it is now

[purpleronnie]

Yes , I'm a former Baby Squabbler member and I've had many a punch up with some of the hardest cruise firms around, including the Chelsea Haircutters , the West Ham Choo Choo Firm, Stoke City's Naughty Naughties and the Millwall Brushpushers.

So don't give me no lip .

:xmasbiggrin:

[C-man]

What an absolute embarrassment this thread is.

Firms like the BS were one of the major raison d'être for perimeter fencing, thus leading directly to the death of 96 innocent fans at Hillsborough, thus leading to all-seater stadiums and the sanitisation of football.

I wasn't in Vienna but can imagine the BS may have been of some use, given the retarded nature of Red Star fans. However, you can't justify a firm's existence on protecting normal fans at European ties. Need I remind anyone of the murder of 39 Juventus fans by Liverpool's plebeian minority.

I find it ridiculous that anyone can glorify the idiots that have completely ruined football culture for my generation, with the help of the overbearing authorities, obviously. I find it a bit crazy that one of the biggest supporters of safe-standing on this board can say that 'there's nothing wrong with a good punch-up'.

As for someone stating that Ultras are the ones carrying knifes, I suggest you do some research. The ultra movement only became synonymous with hooliganism because of a fascination with the English hooligan model. The vast majority of European ultras groups have nothing to do with hooligans.

I honestly believe that all hooligan firms are a waste of space. I certainly have nothing to thank them for.

[Guest Bilo]

Quality post C-Man.

The BS might have been nice blokes if you were mates with them, and I don't doubt they''d do anything for you. Nor do I deny their conduct in Vienna got many a City fan out of a sticky spot, but the negatives of hooligan groups like themselves far outweigh the positives.

There are reasons Tigers fans get to stand on terraces with a beer in their hand and we don't, hooliganism gave the authorities the excuse they needed to sanitise football. They're a major reason for the advent of modern football that most of us abhor.

[The Year Of The Fox]

But none of the above in c mans posts or yours bilo SHOULD directly relate back to hooliganism. The authorities allow it to seem that way to further sanitise us the fans.

What happened at Coventry in 2008, by all accounts fron people who were there was nothing worse than you get in vice versa on a,Friday night. Yet people got sent down for it

[Finnegan]

I really don't give a flying one way or another when it comes to football violence, if nobody involves me or mine I just don't care. I find the people passionately defensive of the Baby Squad when they're blatantly too young to ever have been involved absolutely hilarious and seriously embarrassing.

That said, I know quite a few blokes who used to get involved in their youth (not that they themselves like to boast about it, mind, it's usually hushed, dramatic whispers from coworkers) and they're all really decent guys who've quite clearly grown out of it and recognize that the 80s were just a different time. Don't think many of them even go down the city since we moved grounds.

Thing that both ****s me off and makes me laugh the most though is this "people slagging them off wouldn't say it to their face!" shit. Essentially implying that because some overly sensitive hard case could have no intelligent justification for his actions and resort to filling you in for having criticisms that he'd be correct by default.

No. **** off and grow up, kids. Survival of the fittest died out the second religions started writing laws and ethics for us in dot BC. The strongest don't rule the world, the smartest do. I don't doubt some bruiser eight times my size could knock my teeth in but that doesn't make their argument valid.

Football violence has directly resulted in plastic stadiums, paranoid policing, seating and negative stereotypes universally upheld about football fans and - further than that - working class youths in general for generations.

Don't believe it? Sorry, that's your stupidity not everyone else's ignorance because we "weren't involved."

[Guest Bilo]

I agree the police have a great deal to answer for with their tactics, especially in the 1980s, but it seems a bit naive to say that wasn't the fault of the hooligans.

The fact that the police now seem to see football as a means of exercising control and easy overtime is directly related to the activities of those days.

I'm fairly sympathetic towards these guys as individuals, they seem honest people, but their activities in their younger days contributed towards football being shit today.

The targeting of middle class fans and families today, with all of the destruction of atmosphere that has come with it, is due to what happened 20-30 years ago.

[MC Prussian]

I've heard the rumours too supposedly true apparently there was footage of it on the Internet at some point... There is the video below though the rumours are from the subway I believe?

Red Star fans throwing flares at Leicester followers after shouting a very funny "F**ck you, Leicester" ... The good old days, eh?

[Ashley]

Red Star fans throwing flares at Leicester followers after shouting a very funny "F**ck you, Leicester" ... The good old days, eh?

Where did I say in this thread these where the good old days. Don't put words in my mouth.

[Zingari]

I really don't give a flying one way or another when it comes to football violence, if nobody involves me or mine I just don't care. I find the people passionately defensive of the Baby Squad when they're blatantly too young to ever have been involved absolutely hilarious and seriously embarrassing.

That said, I know quite a few blokes who used to get involved in their youth (not that they themselves like to boast about it, mind, it's usually hushed, dramatic whispers from coworkers) and they're all really decent guys who've quite clearly grown out of it and recognize that the 80s were just a different time. Don't think many of them even go down the city since we moved grounds.

Thing that both ****s me off and makes me laugh the most though is this "people slagging them off wouldn't say it to their face!" shit. Essentially implying that because some overly sensitive hard case could have no intelligent justification for his actions and resort to filling you in for having criticisms that he'd be correct by default.

No. **** off and grow up, kids. Survival of the fittest died out the second religions started writing laws and ethics for us in dot BC. The strongest don't rule the world, the smartest do. I don't doubt some bruiser eight times my size could knock my teeth in but that doesn't make their argument valid.

Football violence has directly resulted in plastic stadiums, paranoid policing, seating and negative stereotypes universally upheld about football fans and - further than that - working class youths in general for generations.

Don't believe it? Sorry, that's your stupidity not everyone else's ignorance because we "weren't involved."

Yes Finners .

Anyone involved in that sort of stuff back then should be getting towards middle age now and really ought to be looking back with a huge amount of embarrassment and regret.

I was a twat at football grounds in the late 60's early 70's when all this stupidity started and sometime before the "firms" such as BS

I spent many Saturday afternoons at "attendance centres" which were given out as court punishment for young offenders back then to keep us away from football grounds .

I think they were pretty effective too because while the match was on we were scrubbing floors or doing pressups in cold wet school yards.It soon dawned on me how stupid I was

Football hooliganism however you dress it up is rank fookin stupidity

[Webbo]

I knew a fairly high up member of the BS(I don't want to name him as someone on here is bound to know him) back when I was around 17/18. Tbh I tried to avoid him he was a right knob.