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POLICING THE FIRM
“I would say that I did the job as effectively as anybody in the country. At the time I had one of the largest hooligan contingents to contend with – United were taking an average of 200 to every away game. Okay one week it might be 400 and the next 100 but it was one of the largest hooligan groups in the country and I like to think that over that period there was very little major disorder due to the role I did.”

“Steve” was a Football Intelligence Officer (FIO) responsible for preventing disorder at United games from 1995 until 1999. Having retired from the police force almost three years ago he agreed to grant RI an interview to speak about his time travelling around the country and beyond keeping United’s more “hyperactive” element in check.

It will come as news to some readers that there are fulltime police officers designated to Football Intelligence at Old Trafford but don’t let the fancy title dupe you into thinking the role comes with a guarantee of them knowing details such as the venue of the 1961 European Cup Final along with regular participation in pub quizzes. The intelligence concerned has less to do with facts relating to Pele’s “beautiful game” than information relating to the next outbreak of the “English disease”. The prevention of hooliganism is the officers’ remit and to the outsider it may well seem a strange relationship exists between ‘the law’ and ‘the disorderly’.

“The way I saw the job was I was the community police officer in that area and I wouldn’t arrest anyone but if I got information I would pass it on to people who would. Because I wasn’t going round arresting them I could build up a trust despite being a police officer. I needed that trust to be able to get to know who was who, to go into the pubs where they’d meet, to walk with them down the road through town centres and up to the grounds. That trust was the safety net I needed from the United mob so I wouldn’t be in danger and ultimately so I could stop them fighting.

“Maybe more of them should have been arrested in my time. Certainly I never arrested a lot of United because I thought my role was intelligence gathering and stopping the fighting and over the four years I did the job I think we were successful. I thought that we would undermine our ability to do that job and compromise our role if we’d have been arresting a lot of them because it could easily place me in danger. They’d be thinking ‘there’s that “Steve” arresting us and spoiling our trouble’ so I didn’t have that sort of relationship with them. I think the relationship I had was we both walked a precarious line. But United fans knew that they couldn’t step over that line and assault someone in my view without me doing something about it.

“There was a mutual respect because they wouldn’t attack me – there have been times myself and my fellow FIO have been walking down the road with hundreds of them and it would have been easy for them to attack us. An enormous mob turned out for Liverpool in the cup one year and we were walking with them through an estate in Salford towards the ground. All the police vans trailing us had had to go around and as we went under this dark underpass - just me, my partner and about 600 United – one of them commented ‘have you two any idea where you are? Do you think any other two police could do what you’re doing now?’ They could have killed us quite easily if they’d wanted to many times it was that precarious. But I felt they sort of looked upon us as their police. In fact there were several occasions in situations away from home where the rival mob actually saw we were the opposing police and tried to have a go at us and the United mob stopped them from doing it. Several occasions. I never felt endangered by walking down road with 400 United.”

It may not sound like much but the trust “Steve” talks about is not enjoyed by all clubs’ FIOs. He made reference to one London club’s officer who wasn’t even able to go in the pub where his team’s firm met for fear of coming under attack such was the antagonism he had generated towards him. “He would be stood outside and we’d ask how many lads they had in the pub and he might say ‘60-70’ but really he didn’t have a clue. 150 might come out of there. That can’t be a good situation for him because he has no idea about the firm which is his responsibility. We didn’t want that situation with United. It’s in our interests to be able to go in, walk around, and not only know how many are in a pub but more importantly see who is in the pub, say hello to them, let them know you know they’re in there.”

So how do the FIOs get to know who the faces are without creating the obvious resentment simply demanding names and addresses would engender? Clearly there are those with previous convictions and those already on record but subtler methods are required in other circumstances: “There are many different ways. For example if I saw two or three guys outside Villa Park with United’s mob who I didn’t know I wouldn’t get them up against a wall and demand their details, shout ‘turn out your pockets, you’re being watched’ but I might have a quiet word with the local police to do so. Then while they were in the middle of it I’d come over and make sure they were okay and walk off. Of course I could get the details later back in the police station but in the meantime they might think ‘those West Midlands police are bastards but that ‘Tache is ok, he checked they weren’t giving us grief’. I’d still have got the info I needed and if they’re in trouble in future I know who they are. There’s no point in me alienating them so they think ‘there’s Tache let’s do him’.

Tache? Clearly another name for this particular FIO then and no surprise how it came about. “I didn’t mind it. Not one of the worst things to be called. I was probably called much worse behind my back. I think most people knew I was a United supporter which maybe helped in the long run. I was a Stretford Ender in the ‘70s but I wasn’t part of a mob or anything. I don’t think I was ever part of any confrontation at a football match. But I know that it was a different culture in the ‘70s.”

So how did a Stretford Ender in the Red Army years end up policing some of those same Red Army veterans in later years? “I was a Partington lad, went to school there. I wanted to be a PE teacher and studied at South Trafford college with a view to teacher training college but I broke my leg in final year. Thousands of teachers were out of work at that time and while I was convalescing I did menial driving jobs and the like. I met a copper over a brew one time, got chatting and was persuaded to join up. From November ‘78 I spent my career on the Trafford division in Sale, Altrincham, Partington and Stretford. I was in CID and also spent three years in the drugs squad, operating in Moss Side and the like before the Football Intelligence post came up in ‘95.”

Back then United were nowhere near as active week-in, week-out as they would be by the end of “Steve’s” term in the post. Indeed in those first few months the touts were the main target after a change in the law had made the unauthorised reselling of football match tickets a criminal offence. Many of the main touts were arrested, handed a temporary ban before being left to the courts to deal with. The operation didn’t quite go to plan though. Whilst many were found guilty touting was not really taken seriously – after all only weeks earlier it had not even been an offence and for any event other than football it still wasn’t. “Steve” recounts the tale of one spiv being handed a token £10 fine with the magistrate commenting: “What’s the problem? I get all my theatre tickets off these people.”

Hooliganism was still high on the agenda though with names continually being put to faces. The information collected is used with pictures of those identified ending up on a wall in the FIOs’ office in Stretford police station. There “Steve” says they had a huge “family tree” detailing all the names with people grouped together according to known friends and associates, a fact well known to the lads. Other information will end up in intelligence reports for other forces either at home or abroad. “At that time I’d identified a younger group of Mancs who weren’t part of the older lads and who weren’t part of the Cockneys which were the groups we traditionally distinguished between. We gave them a name so we now had the young Mancs and the old Mancs as well as the Cockney Reds. When it came to European games the Germans were always a stickler for such terms and groupings. We used to laugh as they’d ask us: ‘[affecting dodgy German accent] so we have the old boys who are Manchester and the young boys who are Manchester…what are these Cockernees…?’”

One of the main issues currently affecting all United supporters is of course the early kick-off times, often cited by the police as preventing disorder due to fans having less time in the pubs before the matches and yet some of the worst violence has occurred at such games, notably Leeds and Bolton away. “Steve” gives the police perspective on the argument:

“To have Leeds on Saturday at 3pm clearly in the police’s eyes give people more time to drink, more time to get there and organise themselves and so the police try and take the drink element away from it. You can debate whether it works or not but from the police’s point of view they have different classifications of supporters. You’ve got what I call the bobblehats who go with their dads and lads and would never dream of fighting, therefore the drink element would have nothing to do them. Then you’ve got the barmy army if you like who are not organised hooligans but for whom after a few beers it doesn’t take much for a little rumble or skirmish and they’re all wanting to get involved. I think that taking away the drink element from that category of supporters clearly helps the police operation. For your hardcore hooligan, I don’t think the drink element has anything to do with them at all. Before the 1994 cup final against Chelsea on the Kilburn High Road there was about a 400-strong contingent of United’s hooligan element gathered for a pre-arranged confrontation with the Chelsea mob who were about a mile down the road and they were nearly all drinking fruit juices. They were all sat in the pubs in Kilburn drinking cokes and fruit juices because they knew that they wanted to have their wits about them if a massive mob of Chelsea were going to be coming down the road.”

“Steve” is obviously proud that there was little major disorder involving United during his years as a FIO but there is little doubt that the violence during the trip to Feyenoord in November ’97 was a throwback to years gone by: “The intelligence operation from our point of view was watertight. I had intelligence from various sources about where United were going to meet, what time, which pubs, how many there were going to be and what their plan was going to be. They were going to get a particular train to Amsterdam and they were going to travel down to Rotterdam. I knew what time they were going to arrive and I knew what their intention was. Now, for me it doesn’t get any better than that. I relayed that information to the Dutch police in Rotterdam and Amsterdam so as far as I’m concerned they couldn’t have had it any better. As we arrived at Rotterdam Central Station United arrived on the platform we’d told them, at the time we’d told them. They left the way we said they would and we followed behind incredulous as they walked past about 300 riot police all in their vans waiting for orders. United walked straight off into the city centre and trashed the bar where the Feyenoord hooligans were. I was standing there with my opposite number watching that and I have to say honestly there was more than a certain amount of ironic amusement from my side. All be it they were fighting, not with people who didn’t want it but the rival mob, but I’m thinking to myself can I do my job any better to stop it and yet it’s still going on. I honestly believe, no I couldn’t do it any better. The fact that the Dutch were given the information and were negligent in their duty wasn’t my fault.” The rumours that the local police were only too happy for United’s firm to come and give the bullyboys of the Dutch league a slap went unconfirmed but readers will be able to draw their own conclusions.

The inside intelligence “Steve” referred to is clearly a key component of doing the job successfully - “The lads all know we had our sources within the mob”. Occasionally though those sources fail to come up trumps. “Steve” cites the trip to West Ham in March ‘98 after the Hammers had been left most unhappy at the reception they’d received at Old Trafford the previous season. For United it was simply a game they had to turn out for and turn out properly. Beforehand word of United’s meeting point was kept between only a couple of lads and this stumped the FIOs. “We knew United were meeting up somewhere and that if it was within walking distance of the ground we’d probably hear about it. Therefore it had to be some distance away and in London that could be almost anywhere. The only thing we could do was wait by the tube stations and see if they turned up.” It’s fair to assume the thought of going down to London and showing the locals they could do the job properly wasn’t consigned to the firm that night. “Steve” admits his source failed him: “the lads couldn’t afford any slips and had put a ban on all outgoing phone calls so he couldn’t get in touch.”

Not even underhand methods revealed United’s whereabouts: “I had the number of one of the main lads and gave him a ring, putting on a Cockney voice asking where they all were. I don’t know how but he sussed me straight away and started laughing down the phone ‘is that you? You don’t know where we are do you?’” If United’s whereabouts was unknown beforehand then the sight of them all bowling out of Upton Park tube station and down towards the ground all clad in balaclavas gave them away. “I failed that day but I made sure I found out every little detail afterwards, even down to who bought the balaclavas. And I promised myself that they weren’t going to get away with another single trick for the rest of that season. They weren’t having me again.”

“Steve” denies that he ever had a perverse sense of pride at ‘his’ mob doing another FIO’s mob. “No I didn’t. I felt as though I had a responsibility to stop them fighting, we must make that clear. At no time did I see them as my friends, we couldn’t have that relationship. There were some of them who spoke to me socially, you know if we were stood outside a pub on the Kilburn High Road or the Seven Sisters on a hot day sweating like mad they’d bring cokes out. Hey, they might have spat in it but I don’t think so. The ringleaders would come out and quite openly chat to us and mention what they were going to do when they left the pub, what their intentions were. 20 minutes before kick-off they’d leave the pub, walk down the road and take on all comers, if someone wanted it they were going to get it. We’d know all that anyway but I guess it’s all part of the cat and mouse game. We all knew the rules so who would get caught out? It certainly wasn’t my role to protect them, it was my role to stop them fighting.” Still, “Steve” can recount a story whereby United’s firm had a perverse sense of pride in him ‘doing the business’: “At Leeds one year United were all penned in by the local police on a roundabout near the ground whilst the locals stood around throwing bottles and the like. I asked one Leeds officer if they were just going to stand around and let them break the law and he just shrugged. I said to my partner “come on, let’s go” and three of us drew our batons and backed them off away from United. When we came back I was knackered. I felt as though I’d done ten rounds in the ring and all the lads gave us a big round of applause.” One witness remarked when reminded of the event: “that one particularly mouthy Leeds fan had been laid out cold was merely consequential and no doubt accidental. But it certainly kept the lads amused.”

“Steve” was ultimately forced to retire from the police as a result of the violence he did so much to prevent. “December ‘98 at Spurs. United had a large mob of 250-300. There was a lot of trouble after the game on the Tottenham High Road and on the way back to the Seven Sisters tube the police had made the middle of the road a void area with United on the left and Spurs on the right. There were only about 60 Spurs but it was all their main heads. There were surges all the way down the road with the mobs trying to get at each other beyond the police. Then there was a surge from both sides and I was in the middle. A Metropolitan police horse, lady driver I hasten to add, charged in and didn’t see me - bright yellow fluorescent jacket, not a small guy. The horse knocked me on the side of my head and whilst on the floor kicked me near my ear. I immediately noticed hearing loss and tinnitus. Eventually I went to see a specialist and he diagnosed a brain tumour. He reckoned it was already there but the kick brought on the symptoms which would have surfaced as the tumour got bigger. I had an op in August 2000 to remove the tumour but unfortunately they had to remove my inner ear too so I’m deaf on that left side.”

Despite this unfortunate tale he shows a remarkable lack of bitterness about it all. “I can understand completely why people are involved in hooliganism. Other policemen would often ask me about it and to explain I’d ask them why do they drive like mad to get to a pub fight when a call comes through on a quiet Saturday night? Ultimately it’s the same sort of thing. 95% of United’s firm are proper fans who want to see the match. The rest of the week most of them are normal blokes. You get a few who are there just for the violence but in the main they love the club, just differently to most and in a way that is clearly unacceptable to most. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to bring about a complete stop to it.”

Where some disappointment is tangible is in his attitude towards certain former colleagues. The FIO post is viewed by many fellow officers as a cushy number, dressing in scruffs in the office during the week, travelling around watching United at weekends: “There was unbelievable jealousy towards us. Unbelievable. So much so I know a lot of people on the Trafford division who disliked us because they didn’t think we did anything. They just thought we went to matches and watched football. Towards the end of my term we were bombarded from below and above because there was a school of thought at the time that violence was falling and we weren’t needed. People were saying fulltime FIO weren’t needed and we were the only division with two so there was a threat all the time during that last year in the job. When I went on the sick some people thought I was playing games. I was lecturing to match commanders around the country on football intelligence and they were constantly looking to downgrade the number of officers and I was warning that it would just encourage violence and was quite outspoken about it. Just because we were doing a good job and keeping a lid on trouble didn’t mean there wasn’t a job to be done. There are constantly events that show it’s bubbling under the surface the whole time - the recent Leeds vs. United game would have been a riot without police. So there was that pressure from above and then from below we had the jealously. Undoubtedly we had a fantastic job - I went to Europe 25 times in those years - but there was still a lot of work to be done.”

One of the most controversial of those European trips was the 1997 visit to Porto which almost saw United kicked out of the European Cup. “We went out to Porto beforehand to inspect the ground and make recommendations. I was shocked when I saw the stands, they were far too steep and hopelessly unsafe – we actually submitted a report to that effect though this was ignored. They showed us where United fans would be admitted to the ground and due to the numbers we knew were travelling we actually got them to increase the number of turnstiles which should have made getting into the ground a lot safer and quicker. But although they increased the number of turnstiles they never actually changed the bar code scanners to allow them to accept United end tickets. So what you had was people turning up, being told to go one way and then being sent back the way they’d just come. The obvious frustration that developed and the ensuing crush as fans went back against the crowd were interpreted by the local police as hooliganism and so the situation escalated to what went on after the match. When the media got hold of the story the local police chief immediately suggested United fans’ were to blame and UEFA were set to kick United out of the competition. Having seen exactly what went on we categorically denied such an allegation and when we got back home spent the weekend compiling a report of events. This ultimately played an important role in United’s defence during UEFA’s investigation into events.” All of which is undoubtedly more important than knowing that Berne was where Benfica beat Barcelona back in 1961.

“Steve” carried on working until October ’99. Following his operation a year later he was given the all clear. Having left the police “Steve” embarked on his original vocation of many years earlier and he is now a partner in a sports education company which entails, amongst other things, extra-curricular coaching for kids in a variety of sports. RI would like to thank him for both agreeing to and giving up his time for the interview.

Such intelligence gathered by the authorities isn’t always put to best use though. Take “Dave’s” story for instance. Now he’ll be the first to admit he’s no angel and has had some scrapes in his time but even he wasn’t prepared for what awaited in Dublin back in 1995. Only a few months after England fans had rioted during a game at Lansdowne Road United were playing a pre-season friendly against Shelbourne….

“There were about 20 of us going out for the weekend and on landing in Dublin over the PA came a message for three of us to remain in our seats. When the plane emptied some blokes got on and introduced themselves as Irish Special Branch. They started some spiel about how we should be grateful they were allowing us into the country and how we’d better behave and so on but we didn’t have a clue what it was all about. Getting off the plane we were shocked at the scene. The area up to the terminal had been cordoned off with scores of police and we were led through, put in separate rooms and thoroughly searched before being sent on our way.

“Later on we all met up in a hotel bar and noticed two blokes keeping tabs on us. One of them was only one of the Special Branch officers from the plane so it was obvious we were under surveillance. As the beers began to flow during the night this led to much piss-taking as they tailed us all from bar to bar. The next morning in the hotel another two were even spotted at breakfast, during which there was much mirth-making at the front page of the Daily Star which detailed us being stopped at the airport whilst accusing us of being members of Combat 18 intent on causing trouble at the game.

“Our plan that day was to go playing golf outside Dublin and in the bar whilst awaiting the others a couple of us got talking to our “minders”. After all there was no point them pretending to be undercover, they may as well simply tag along. We got the train out to the course with them and had even negotiated for them to act as our caddies. When we arrived it was pissing it down and the golf idea was quickly abandoned in favour of another stint in the boozer, Special Branch in tow.

“By the time it came to head back into town we’d had a few and when a group of young lads joined our carriage a bit of banter started up. Before long one of them took offence at us “English bastards” and the little scrote only pulled a knife out. Special Branch dived on him just as we pulled into another station. It was the first chance we’d had to give them the slip and we all jumped off. Amazingly the Special Branch left the wannabe swordsman and followed us! It was soon clear we were in the back of beyond and with no further trains due headed to a pub. When we couldn’t even get a taxi to ferry us back to Town Special Branch got on the blower to their colleagues (six pairs had been assigned to us, operating a shift system) to come and pick us up.

“Before the match we plotted up in a pub near the ground. The leader of the Special Branch squad “Seamus” came in and told me not to bother going to the ground because I’d be arrested by the Garda. ‘But they won’t even know me.’ ‘They’ll know’ he replied. The only thing was to give it a go. At the bottom of the road was a ticket cordon and as I approached some Garda came up and started pushing me giving it all the “you English cunt” shit. More stepped in and it took “Seamus” waving his Special Branch ID to save me and accompany me to the turnstiles. There, some Irish FA official ran up and refused me entry point blank. The only thing was to give my ticket to a kid in the street and head back to the pub.

“There a few of us had a drink with “Seamus” who told us how ridiculous the whole thing was. ‘I can’t believe they’ve made you out to be some sort of semi-terrorist. The file we were given is about 2 inches thick….to think we’ve interrupted some important duties to follow round what is effectively some lads on a stag weekend.’”