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Inter City Firm
West Ham United F.C.

During the 70's, 80's and early 90's West Ham United had what was proberly the country's best known and largest Hooligan firm. "The Inter city Firm" ( ICF ). The group in those days had it's roots in the area's around the East End. Canning Town, Plaistow, Stratford all provided lads who were to become legendary in the pubs and terraces at West Ham. Further out along the A13 has always been West Ham "country" and big groups came from Romford, Barking & Dagenham on the outskirts of East London and many more from further out into Essex. All these groups came together on match days and were an awesome firm and would see off any rivals willing to try there luck in the streets around the ground.

Many supporters from other clubs now talk about the 'most frightening walk' in English football being the walk from Upton Park Station to the Stadiums 'away fans' section in the South bank, unfortunately for them they were very often far from safe once they got inside the Ground as well. West ham lads would queue up and go into the away section causing mayhem and if that was not possible, then the segregation in the old South bank was only one fence with an open gate half way up. Occasionally the few police that use to mind the gate would go missing and the hordes of West Ham's south bank lads would pile through and into the shocked away support. Many of the ICF's top lads could also be found in the Lower West side at West Ham, they would gather in the corner where the West stand and the South bank meet, they could taunt the visitors all through the game and if it did go 'off', then it was across the small wall and after only a yard or two they would be in the away section.

Away games saw the ICF move into a league of their own. The organised supporters travel would be ignored and in the early days the firm would travel via the Rail network, arriving in towns well away from the official supporters clubs and with the element of surprise in their favour. Later, coaches would be hired and an early morning meet in one of various pubs would see 3 or 4 easily filled and loads of cars and vans would follow the main group out of East London. London games saw some of the biggest battles and the London Underground with it's maze of tunnels would be used to get across London without the Police being able to keep track of the firm. In those days entrance to grounds and more to the point the "Home" end was easy. No tickets were needed you just queued up and in you went. Especially in London where the accent didn't give you away ! !

During the 90's the ICF began to slow down. As did all the large hooligan groups across the country, lots of media type people and observers have wrote rubbish about Raves, Court cases ( failed !), CCTV and Police being the reasons for the trouble at football being a lot less than in previous years. My feeling is that the introduction of all ticket games is the biggest reason. Most Premier league football is sold out months in advance, tickets are sold to Club members or via Season tickets and large groups intent on trouble simply cant get a seat for today's games. Why travel all the way across the country if you know for certain that you wont be able to watch the game, dont believe all the idiots in "suits", most football hooligans are still football supporters and DO want to watch the match. All this does not mean that the ICF is finished. Recent years has seen more and more incidents involving the ICF and although they are not on the same scale as before, it is likely that the firm will get bigger as more are attracted to the "Buzz", and more pubs etc will be taken . . .

PS mrly jos uvek cekamo