“I also do think that football violence is tied to the social fabric of the time. As we sit here today people are disaffected and knocking on the door of unemployment; they have lost confidence in our politicians and police and have developed a deep-rooted cynicism of society in the UK. This will manifest itself on the terraces.”

It is a sign on the times – we’re in a recession, there is high unemployment, there are social problems and local tensions, some would also say there are racial tensions… social unrest tends to happen in these times. When everything is going well and in general people are doing well, there is a calmer society. Therefore it is also true that more authoritarian laws are brought in through times of social unrest, and liberal laws through times of success.

Also football firms stemmed from the attitude that the football club was a representation of their community. And therefore firms see themselves as “fighting for their community”.

Millwall lot are a bunch of fucking hardline right-wingers.

West Ham are lefties and non-racist.

Still both fucking ridiculous. But there is a split in football firms, those to the left and those to the right. The far right football firms make up Combat 18 etc.