Sex, Drugs and Football Thugs


Book Description

What does a football hooligan do outside football? In the case of Mark Chester, the answer was: live off his wits and burn the candle at both ends. Sex, Drugs And Football Thugs is part travelogue, part confessional, and by turns harrowing and hilarious.




Drugs and Football


Book Description

Brett Luster grew up without a father, half-black in a vastly white, rural community. He experienced a dichotomy between attending a private school and living in a trailer court. This autobiography examines his search for a father and acceptance. It shows affects of not having a biological father in the house. aBobbye had a knack for not showing up for the game. I suppose I have not forgiven him in my heart yet,a Luster said. Despite many men in the community providing guidance, Brett turned to drugs and alcohol to fill the void left by Bobbye. While experimenting with illicit substances, however, he fell in love with a game that would change his life forever. He began to give himself to the game. The game transformed him. This is a tribute to men who stepped up in his life. This is a testament to the powerful role of men in the lives of children in modern America.




Among the Thugs


Book Description

They have names like Barmy Bernie, Daft Donald, and Steamin' Sammy. They like lager (in huge quantities), the Queen, football clubs (especially Manchester United), and themselves. Their dislike encompasses the rest of the known universe, and England's soccer thugs express it in ways that range from mere vandalism to riots that terrorize entire cities. Now Bill Buford, editor of the prestigious journal Granta, enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of a George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of a Hunter Thompson.




Hooligan


Book Description

The highly acclaimed author of Everywhere We Go makes his fiction debut with this hard-hitting, no-holds-barred account of football violence. Hooligan shoots down the myths behind those involved and exposes the lengths they will go to to achieve their ambition . . .Steven Morris and his firm of football thugs are the most feared in the country. For them the days of fighting on the terrace are long gone, a mugs game for the juniors and wannabes, a place where innocent people can get hurt, and that's not what Mozzer's firm are about. They only want to take on those who wish to take their 'title' away and somehow Mozzer always knows who, where and when to hit and hit hard. Up until now his network of 'scouts' and 'spotters' have always kept the firm one step ahead of the opposition, but is there someone trying to set them up for a bloody ending, and are the police finally closing in?




Football Hooliganism, Fan Behaviour and Crime


Book Description

Focusing on a number of contemporary research themes and placing them within the context of palpable changes that have occurred within football in recent years, this timely collection brings together essays about football, crime and fan behaviour from leading experts in the fields of criminology, law, sociology, psychology and cultural studies.




Gender, Media, Sport


Book Description

Despite the position that sport occupies at the centre of public attention, and despite the billions of consumers and immense coverage which it attracts from around the globe, it seems that the media prioritise coverage of only a very small fraction of sporting events, and a few prominent athletes. It goes without saying that sport in the media is dominated by men – they are a large majority among athletes, consumers, journalists, and producers. This book will shed new light on the long discussed question of gendered sporting coverage, in an era when the Olympics can be dubbed the ‘women’s games’. Some of the contributions present new perspectives such as: the relationship between media and sport in Poland; media presentations of men and women in gender ‘adequate’ and ‘inadequate’ sports; competition between women and men participating in the same events; the presentation of celebrities; and the framing of doping within the context of gender relations. Furthermore, the book focuses not only on athletes, sports and events, but also on consumers, such as hooligans and their brand of masculinity, and on journalists, such as Mike Penner, who attempted to transgress gender boundaries. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.




Naughty


Book Description

In 1985, forty hooligan followers of Stoke City FC experienced a riotous trip to Portsmouth - and the Naughty Forty was born. It became one of the most notorious soccer gangs in Britain.Mark Chester was a founder member of the N40. Already a hardened fighter, he had been expelled from school after an unsettled childhood and joined the Staffordshire Regiment, only to be discharged for misconduct. Stoke City's emerging 'casual' mob became his family. 'Right or wrong, I was ready to be a committed football hooligan,' he says.He recounts tales of raucous coach trips from the Glebe pub and the pivotal clashes with the likes of Everton, Manchester United and West Ham that defined the new firm. Formidable characters came to the forefront, men like the giant Mark Bentley, Philler the Beast and the legendary Miffer, while hair-raising clashes with the likes of Millwall, Spurs, Aston Villa and Manchester City saw the gang's reputation spread.The N40 code was simple: whatever the odds, they would always make a stand. Many times they fought when heavily outnumbered yet often came out on top. They developed a closeness and cohesion rare among the football gangs. Loyalty was their watchword.Soon they were joined by the Under-Fives, a younger element determined to win acceptance from the terrace legends they admired and who carved out their own niche as well as fighting side by side with the old-school heads.Police operations, bans from the ground and the introduction of ID schemes have prevented many from attending games, but the author, long 'retired' from the scene, argues that in the new millennium the gangs are back - and as ferocious as ever. NAUGHTY is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the illicit but seductive lure of terrace combat, the emotional ties of a gang and the addictive buzz of Saturday afternoons.




The Ashgate Research Companion to Fan Cultures


Book Description

Fans constitute a very special kind of audience. They have been marginalized, ridiculed and stigmatized, yet at the same time they seem to represent the vanguard of new relationships with and within the media. ’Participatory culture’ has become the new normative standard. Concepts derived from early fan studies, such as transmedial storytelling and co-creation, are now the standard fare of journalism and marketing text books alike. Indeed, usage of the word fan has become ubiquitous. The Ashgate Research Companion to Fan Cultures problematizes this exaltation of fans and offers a comprehensive examination of the current state of the field. Bringing together the latest international research, it explores the conceptualization of ’the fan’ and the significance of relationships between fans and producers, with particular attention to the intersection between online spaces and offline places. The twenty-two chapters of this volume elucidate the key themes of the fan studies vernacular. As the contributing authors draw from recent empirical work around the globe, the book provides fresh insights and innovative angles on the latest developments within fan cultures, both online and offline. Because the volume is specifically set up as companion for researchers, the chapters include recommendations for the further study of fan cultures. As such, it represents an essential reference volume for researchers and scholars in the fields of cultural and media studies, communication, cultural geography and the sociology of culture.




Football and Accelerated Culture


Book Description

In Football and Accelerated Culture, Steve Redhead offers a new and challenging theorisation of global football culture, exploring the relationship between sport and culture in a rapidly shifting world. Incorporating cutting-edge concepts, from accelerated culture and claustropolitanism to non-postmodernity, he reflects on the demise of working class football cultures and the rapid media globalisation of ‘the people’s game’. Drawing on international empirical research and a unique and ground-breaking study of football hooligan memoirs, the book delves into a wide array of disciplines, examining fascinating topics such as the relationship between music and football; hooligans and ultras; the rise of social media and anti-modern football movements; and ultra-realist criminology. Football and Accelerated Culture offers a new way of thinking about sporting cultures that expands the boundaries of physical cultural studies. As such, it is important reading for anybody with an interest in the culture of sport and leisure, social theory, communication studies, criminology or socio-legal studies.




Hooligans 2


Book Description

'The real history of soccer violence.' LOADED 'A comprehensive look at some of Britain's most notorious hooligan factions.' LADS MAG From the authors of the acclaimed "HOOLIGANS: The A-L" comes the final part of the only comprehensive guide ever written to the darker side of modern football history. Here are the stories of every soccer hooligan gang, from the Cool Cats of Manchester City to the Subway Army of Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Nomad Society of York City. Authors Andy Nicholls and Nick Lowles interviewed scores of current and former hooligans to compile a definitive encyclopedia of the firms. Each club has an entry listing the names of its gangs, how they formed, their worst fights, their bitterest rivals and police operations against them. Read the histories of the Naughty Forty, the Drunk and Disorderly Firm, the Affray Team, the 6.57 Crew, the Fine Young Casuals, the Inside Crew, the Goon Squad and many more. "HOOLIGANS 2" is the ultimate guide to a fascinating but much misunderstood subject.