Top 6 Best Football Hooligan Films

Football or soccer hooligans are fans, or groups of fans, that tend to be aggressive, disorderly, and violent during matches and other soccer events.

Hooligans are common in England, and people sometimes refer to them as the “English Disease”. Hooliganism started to become a problem in the 1960s when it became frequent and more violent.

Several hooligan events have inspired filmmakers to produce football hooligan films. Whether the aim is to inspire, warn, or inform, here are some of these movies.

Best Football Hooligan Films

1. The Football Factory (2004)

This movie starring Danny Dyer is a soccer hooligan movie that tries to show the public what it is like to belong to a firm. The movie is based on Tommy, a Chelsea fan and hooligan. Tommy is embroiled in the firm’s activities of drinking, fighting, and womanizing.

The film shows how the hooligan culture is addictive and how Tommy’s family and girlfriend try to advise him to leave the firm with no success.

2. Green Street (2005)

Green Street (also called Green Street Hooligans) shows how hooliganism in football can be a dangerous affair. Its plot is based on an American who is inducted into hooliganism in a fictional West Ham firm known in the movies as the Green Street Elite.

The American, played by Elijah Wood, is gripped by the thrill of hooliganism and the adrenaline that comes with fighting rival fans. It also shows how firm members form unbreakable bonds as they frequently go on hooligan adventures together.

3. The Firm (1989)

The word “firm” is commonly used in the UK as an identity to hooligan groups in football. The hooligan movie The Firm draws its inspiration from this common term. This movie gives a background lesson on how firms used to work back in the 80s.

The story follows Dom, a kid who is introduced into a West Ham firm in the 1980s. Dom admires his idol, Bex, who is the leader of the West Ham Casuals.

4. Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)

This 2007 movie also draws its inspiration from football and the hooligan groups that make up the fans. This is a graphic movie that shows more of the violent side of hooligans than the culture of firms.

The movie is about a West Ham hooligan named Carlton Leach who fights his way into the club’s Inter City Firm. It shows how hooligans can turn into murderers, as Leach’s three partners were killed and dumped in Essex in 1995.

5. I.D (1995)

This is another movie inspired by hooligans in football. It involves an undercover police unit formed to bust an infamous hooligan gang called the Dog’s gang. The Dogs are responsible for almost all of the crowd trouble at the Shadwell Town soccer club and violent crimes in South London.

One of the undercover police, John, played by Reece Dinsdale, eventually unleashes a darker side as he pursues the Dogs. Trevor, his superior, fears John has been drawn into the craze.

6. Awaydays (2009)

Awaydays is about a young man, Paul Carty, who spends almost all his money on clubs, gigs, and football to kill boredom. He stays with his grieving farther after Carty’s mother passed on and a younger sister.

Carty’s life turns into an adventure when he meets Elvis in one of the matches he attends. Elvis is a member of a hooligan group, known as The Pack. Elvis comes with the opportunity for Carty to join The Pack.

Conclusion

There are other hooligan movies rated as among the best, such as Cass, The Hooligan Wars, and Top Dog. Hooligans became common in the 1960s, but football associations have become intolerant of their behavior recently.

Firms have become less violent, but they are more dangerous during some world soccer challenges such as World Cups, Euros, or the Fifa Club World Cup. World Football Challenges is giving firms, and casuals, the chance to bring their culture online.

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