Radio War Nerd EP #381 — Football Hooliganism: War By Other Means, feat. Aamer

The recently deceased Berlusconi was a huge football fan, the name of his party "Forza Italia" was originally a popular chant.

John

Sean? Autocorrect AI killing me

sea

The eventual johndolansings website needs to have an Oi! version of the French are on the sea says the Sea -bhean bhocht.

Maybe it was a topic before, but if we talk about hooligans again, you HAVE to discuss the Red Star Belgrade saga. The team won the champions league in 91-92 and then their ultras basically became a milita in the Yugoslavia wars. A decade later, the infamous paramilitary/gangster Arkan's football club won the Serbian league (one of the only winners in the last 30 years that wasn't the top two clubs, red star or Partisan). I'm probably butchering the details, but the Balkan scene deserves it's own guest I feel

I liked it but i can definitely get why some would consider this a "dud." nothing wrong with having high standards for the show

Comic Book Guy: "Worst episode ever"

👎 boo you whore!

ploob

Nah this was fine

William

SMH somehow you forgot to mention the most feared ultras of all time Louis van gals army https://youtu.be/pWl64D078kA

JimmyFenian

Don't you mean queen park raisins https://youtu.be/MqxpARgj1S0

JimmyFenian

Listening now and I have to bring up the Millwall Brick: an improvised weapon made up of change rolled into a newspaper that is then folded and squashed into crude cosh. It came into vogue after most other potential weapons were banned from stadiums: you could hardly pull someone up for a paper and a pocket of loose change. Tabloids were most common, but the elite choice was a broadsheet copy of the Financial Times for its large size. A group of working class toughs with copies of the Financial Times became a cause for alarm

Orient (or Leyton Orient). Also Charlton Athletic. You could probably include Watford.

xnfec

Also, Fever Pitch has a good depiction of the terrace experience.

Christopher Price

Arsenal, T'ham, West Ham, Millwall, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Chelsea, Brentford, Queen's Park Rangers. I think that's the London clubs

Christopher Price

On this is England: A friend of mine from Manchester said "it were really like that you know"

Xander Udo

This was the most useless, dull episode you've ever done. It's okay. They can't all be winners. Let's hope the next one returns to your usual high standard.

David Andrews

Great episode. I saved this one for today to get primed for the West Ham game. COYI. And second the big thumbs up for the movie This Is England. One of the best depictions of skinhead culture I've ever seen. Plus the UK Subs.

This totally needs to be a series - there were so many avenues opening up that there wasn't time to go down. Not-really-relatedly but surely there's something to be said about the different gulf powers buying up chunks of the European football landscape (eg, MBS/Newcastle, the Emiratis/Man City and possible Qatari takeout of Man U, just to take English examples)?

Great job Aamer! Looking forward to part two. For some reason it was very satisfying hearing someone splaining football to a couple of Americans 🙈 The 'english model' of tackling hooliganism is often talked about in the Netherlands too. The younger generation of hooligans, such as those hoodied kids at AZ, have been more active the last few years. There's quite a few people who see a link with the covid lockdowns. As in people have had trouble adjusting back to larger group social interaction. Kindergarten teachers report kids have shorter fuses, so too in bars, nightlife. Maybe, but these younger hooligans come and go in cycles anyway. And cocaine was/is definitely a big part of hooliganism, over here at least. There was a de facto drugs gang among hardcore Ajax hooligans for a while a few years back. Probably still is.

Xander Udo

The rangers affinity for Israel is not just a reaction to the celtic affinity for palestine, its a general ulster unionist fetishisation of Israelis as the ultra-ethnonationalist settlers/planters they want to be. Seeing the confederate flag flying alongside the Israeli one is not unusual in northern ireland

Jamie

It's true that football culture is a bit more "soft" today than it was in the 70's and 80's in Britain but there have been benefits from the lack of violence. Crowds pretty dwindled through the 70s and into the early 90s. It's all fun and games having a laugh until 3,000 odd Wolves fans decide their going to invade the home end where you are across the pitch and you're barely 10 years old. A lot of people didn't want to be involved in that.

Jennifer Wiren