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The Chelsea Headhunters are an English football hooligan firm linked to the London football club Chelsea[1]
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Background
Their biggest rivalries are with their counterparts who follow other London teams, in particular Arsenal, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham[citation needed].
There was widespread racism amongst the gang and links to various white supremacist organisations, such as Combat 18, the National Front and Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisations, such as the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force.[1]
They were infiltrated by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre for a documentary screened on the BBC on 9 November 1999, in which MacIntyre posed as a wannabe-member of the Chelsea Headhunters. He had a Chelsea tattoo applied to himself for authenticity, although the hardcore were surprised he chose the hated "Millwall lion" badge rather than the classic 1960s upright lion one. He confirmed the racist elements in the Headhunters and their links to Combat 18, including one top-ranking member who had been imprisoned on one occasion for possession of material related to the Ku Klux Klan.[2] The programme led to arrests and several convictions. One member of the Headhunters, Jason Marriner, who was convicted and sent to prison as a result of the show, has since written a book claiming to have been set up by MacIntyre and the BBC. He claims that footage was edited and manipulated, and "incidents" were manufactured and they were convicted despite having no footage of them committing crimes.[3]
Nick Love's film, The Football Factory, presented the Headhunters in a fictionalized account[citation needed]. The film focuses mainly on the firm's violent rivalry with the Millwall Bushwackers.
A former member of the firm is Kevin Whitton who was sentenced to life imprisonment on 8 November 1985 for violent assault after being found guilty of involvement in an attack on a pub on Kings Road which was described as being some of the worst incidents of football hooliganism ever witnessed in England. After Chelsea lost a match, Whitton and other hooligans stormed into the pub chanting "War, war war". When they left a few minutes later the American bar manager lay close to death, with one of them shouting, "You bloody Americans. Coming here taking our jobs."[4]
See also
- Casuals
- Football hooliganism
- List of hooligan firms
- Hooliganism
- Inter City Firm
- Millwall Bushwackers
- Aston Villa Hardcore
References
- ^ a b "Making a new start". BBC News. 2 May 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hooligans/1962503.stm. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
- ^ Lowles, Nick. "Headhunters unmasked". Searchlight. http://www.macintyre.com/content/view/62/105/. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
- ^ Marriner, Jason (April 2006). It's Only a Game. Mainland GB Publishing. ISBN 0955268206.
- ^ Lasky, Melvyn (20 June 2006). On the Barricades, and Off. United States: Transaction Publishers. p. 156. ISBN 978-0887387265. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=73lGvk6EGWgC&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=%22Kevin+Whitton+(++English+Football+hooligan++&source=web&ots=RkePvVvgmd&sig=X0o1Fucvl1G7PvOiet8ndVX2Mq4&hl=en.
Further reading
- Buglioni, Gaetano; King, Martin (1 August 2008). Bully C.F.C.: The Life and Crimes of a Chelsea Head-hunter. Head Hunter Books. ISBN 1906085080.
- Ward, Colin; Henderson, Clive (5 October 2000). Who Wants It?. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 184018325X.
- Ward, Colin; Hickmott, Steve (10 May 2007). Armed for the Match: The Troubles and Trials of the Chelsea Headhunters. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0747262926.
- Worrall, Mark (10 May 2007). Blue Murder: Chelsea Till I Die. Head Hunter Books. ISBN 1906085005.
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