Congratulations You Have Just Met the ICF (West Ham United) - They Have Style, They Have Violence…The Intercity Firm Are All Your Worst Nightmares Come True

by Cass Pennant

Cass Pennant was one of the best-known figures of the I.C.F. He has used his unique position as a West Ham insider to bring together these first-hand accounts of the men who were at the eye of the storm, both on and off the terraces. These tales from the terraces range from the inflamed East End rivalry with Millwall to the shed-end-battles with Chelsea, from aggravation at Anfield's Kop to the disaster at Heysel. The stories unfold against a backdrop of sharp fashion and music, such as The Cockney Rejects and Sham 69, that became the hallmark of the hoolifans.

Genres: Football, Sports, Nonfiction, Soccer

433 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Verlagsamateur · Rating 2 out of 5]

habe ich mir mit 17 oder so bestellt nach dem ich mir hooligans und football factory angeschaut habe, stand seitdem aber ungelesen im regal. zusammengefasst eine ansammlung von anekdoten über diverse hauerein. wird irgendwann öde aber teils doch unterhaltsam gewesen.

[Sarah Rayner · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a football supporter this book amazed me as how football has changed over the years. How these supporters got up to the things they did without being locked up is unbelievable and the weapons they took to games and into grounds I had a body spray taken off me before I could enter a league one game earlier this season.
The book is interesting to read for a football supporter but gets a bit tedious at times quite repetitive

[Kristian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Il libro in se è interessante.
Il problema è che è troppo lungo e ripetitivo.
Bastavano la metà delle pagine.
I capitoli più interessanti sono i primi e gli ultimi...
In mezzo tante "avventure" in fotocopia

[Paolo Nardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://speloncalibro.blogspot.it/2009...

[Tom Blacklock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Total pile of shit, did not bother finishing

[Shell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not into football but doing a psychology course. Interesting read although sometimes repetitive

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this years ago. Remember it being pretty good

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of the book is their business card, I think it's brilliant on their part though I can't say I'm sorry I was never handed one. Or perhaps I am. There are probably large cardboard boxes full of what's written about football hooligans. They analyze the why and the how; violence seems to attract a sort of fascination and I admit I am not immune to it. And I am not immune to a level of admiration for anyone like Bill Gardner who could walk up to the mob of another firm and say "Good afternoon gentlemen. The name's Bill Gardner." And then the ruck's on. It's a sort of utter fearlessness and abandon, and this book won't analyze anything, it'll bring it to life for you through the words of all the right faces in the Inner City Firm. It's stories of the West Ham supporters through the height of violence in the 70's and the 80's, along with a glimpse into the meaning of the violence from some of the most feared men of the I.C.F. You'll find no academics or reporters talking about hooligans here, I love it because here people get to speak for themselves.

Interestingly enough, though, there's very little said about West Ham or football itself. A great book with a lot more about football is Eduardo Galeano's Soccer in Sun and Shadow, highlighting the great games and the great players and the politics behind it all, a great counterpoint to give context to a book like this one...

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you ever being caught by the buzzling sound of the football chants this book will catch your attention too.im sure will be highly appreciated mostly by the fans of West Ham United but nevertheless it provides interesting facts and points of view of one whole era in history of the game - the Hoolifans in the 80's. pointless violence, adrenalin rush and the-good-old-times is what you can read about mostly but somehow it is exactly what the hooligan movement is about.I like the book but still I support Liverpool :P

[Tommy Regoli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ripetitivo e infantile.
Il libro si presenta come uno schedario di fatti dove le descrizioni sono quasi superflue visto che dopo 30-40 pagine si intuisce che ogni capitolo tratta le stesse cose, gli stessi avvenimenti e le stesse modalità. Ho cominciato la lettura per approfondire le mie conoscenze sul mondo Hooligans e mi sono ritrovato di fronte ad interpretazioni banali e superficiali, perdipiù da chi l'ha vissuto dall'interno. Pollice basso per Cass Pennant; sconsigliato. Mediocre anche il film "Cass".

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an oral history of West Ham United notorious Inter City Firm. I found it interesting, terrifying and insane. The problem is that it's the same story over and over again. "We fought on the train, in the tube station, on the way to the match and during the match. THEN it WENT OFF after the match." As a look at the hoolie life, it's totally interesting, but this wouldn't be the first on the list. Wait a while to tackle this one.

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deludente.

Mi aspettavo una disamina sul fenomeno hooligan descritta dall'interno, da uno che quel fenomeno lo ha vissuto in prima linea. Invece tolta una breve descrizione delle varie firm, non c'è altro che una interminabile lista di risse con questa o quella squadra raccontate con dovizia di particolari, quanto credibili non è dato a me dirlo, ma quando si parla di 40 West Ham che fanno scappare 700 "Scousers" forse si tende un pochino (ma giusto un filo eh) verso l'esagerazione.

[Massimo Foglio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un classico del genere, una efficace risposta alle decine di saggi "sociologici" che hanno invano tentato di spiegare il fenomeno hooligan senza conoscerlo a fondo e basandosi solo sulle apparenze esterne. Una grande pecca é la traduzione, secondo me, davvero pessima.

[mcq · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoped to get some more insight on the how and why of the I.C.F. However it was more a selection of old lads remembering fights. Wasn't that into the same old song over again about the fights. Nevertheless an ok read to get some more information about the football violence culture.

[Luke Barber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty graphic account of West Ham hooligans in the seventies and eighties. Enjoyable, though most of the beatings blend together after the first few.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A violent look at the culture and lifestyle of a "firm" of soccer hooligans known as the I.C.F. in England during the seventies and eighties.

[Jak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great deal to differenciate it from many other such hooie books. There were six of us, one thousnd of them, yet we took 'em all and ran 'em. Diverting enough though.

[Judge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read!