The Archive

Should books about football violence be on the top shelf? Rob Chapman believes that the success of ‘hoolie porn’ is due to some men’s rather odd obsession with crime

About 20 years ago I used to work in one of Britain’s hardest and most dangerous borstals. I mentioned this fact to the husband of my cousin one day at a family get-together. “Oh good, tell me more,” he said, fetching me another drink. “I love villainy tales. They give me an erection.” Yes, that’s what he said. These people do exist. He wasn’t the least bit discouraged when I told him that all I did was teach remedial English to a stan­dard whereby the average semi-literate car thief or burglar might at least be able to grasp the rudiments of a Sun editorial. I haven’t seen him for years but I bet he reads hoolie-books. I imagine most of the commissioning editors who publish the stuff are a bit like him, too. They love a bit of rough and they’ve created a veritable industry out of “literature” that documents the exploits of former, and in some cases not so former, football hooligans.

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Coming to a ground near you – a broadsheet journalist who knows little about football and less about hooliganism, but is still writing about them, to Barnay Ronay's fury

Football is in the grip of a new and terrifying menace: journalists writing articles about hooliganism. Not to mention low-budget British films about hooliganism, journalists writing articles about low-budget films about hooliganism – and now a new and even more sinister threat: football mag­azines publishing articles about newspaper stories about hooliganism.

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Corruption, maimings, murder – football is a risky business in some countries. As Dan Brennan explains, success can come with an unbearably heavy price in Tbilisi

Football, for Georgians, is the source of ex­treme and conflicting emotions. On the one hand, this country of barely five million people, with an econ­omy still struggling to find its way out of the doldrums 12 years after independence, has a re­markable track record of pro­ducing wonderfully skil­ful footballers.

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As the anti-racism organisation celebrates its tenth birthday, Tom Davies spoke to Kick It Out co-ordinator Piara Powar about progress made and the battle still ahead

With the well established Kick It Out campaign now ten seasons old, it’s easy to forget just how mar­­ginal an issue anti-racism in football once was. In the 1980s it took the brave efforts of supporters them­selves, often at the places with the worst reputations such as Leeds and Chelsea, to drag the issue to public prominence. And it’s tempting, now, to congratulate ourselves on just how far we’ve come.

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Lincoln’s Keith Alexander, back at work after brain surgery, is one of only three black managers in the league. Grahame Lloyd asked him why he thought this was so

Keith Alexander knows he’s very lucky to be alive. Just three months after undergoing major brain surgery following a collapse at his home, the Lincoln City manager was due back in the dugout for the home derby against Boston on February 7. Alexander could hardly have chosen a more volatile atmosphere for his return but, with Lincoln’s next three matches pitching them against neighbours Scunthorpe and Hull as well as promotion rivals Huddersfield, all their games this month are high-profile and high-octane.

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