HOOLIGANS & THUGS: FOOTBALLS MOST VIOLENT 1 OF 5

HOOLIGANS & THUGS: FOOTBALL'S MOST VIOLENT FAN FIGHTS PART 1 OF 5

They've got great, evocative names like The Gooners, The Ointment, City Psychos, and the Central Element. They worship their sport and their particular football club to the point of swearing undying allegiance and protection to it. They have even become a recognizable cultural stereotype: close-cropped hair, compact bodies pressed into trousers and T-shirts, bulldog faced and Dr. Marten booted.

While it's true that there have always been fan fights -- over calls or particular players or home team pride -- hooliganism, or organized mob violence at sporting events apparently had its roots in the rampant national solidarity that swept Britain after World War II. Becoming more organized and widespread by 1960, the outbursts were initially aimed at immigrants. Eventually, the ideology de-evolved into an almost completely racist bent to all football bedlam (paving the way for one of punk's personal shames, the skinheads).

By the mid-1970s, hooliganism in the UK had a very inner city gang slant, whereby rival crews used Saturday's game as a chance to stage good old-fashioned rumbles. There was also an element of thumbing one's nose at the Establishment, of using fists and feet as a means of challenging the government and its law enforcers. While reaching its zenith in the '80s and '90s, it's gotten to the point now, in the new millennium, where competing organizations avoid the match altogether, and hold their prearranged fights and ambushes in railway stations.

Thanks to the Internet and the availability of cheap communication equipment, one could say that hooliganism has gone hi-tech, utilizing cell phones, pagers, and websites to organize their chaos.