Capital City Service
Encyclopedia
The Capital City Service (CCS) is a Scottish
football hooligan
firm associated with Hibernian
and active from 1984 when the casual
hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligans attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding areas gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the general public as the Hibs Casuals though within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs boys.
The Capital City Service (CCS) is a Scottish
football hooligan
firm associated with Hibernian
and active from 1984 when the casual
hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligans attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding areas gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the general public as the Hibs Casuals though within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs boys.
The Capital City Service (CCS) is a Scottish
football hooligan
firm associated with Hibernian
and active from 1984 when the casual
hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligans attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding areas gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the general public as the Hibs Casuals though within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs boys.
, which further strengthened these connections and helped bolster the young Hibs boys confidence into forming a casual style hooligan firm. This new friendship of youths from different areas of the city was a contrast to the existing area gang ethos that had been a feature of the capital since the 1950s. The camaraderie branched out from match days as the gang members also hung about with each other during the week. Word soon got round and the basis of the first known unified Edinburgh gang was in place.
Edinburgh at that time had become known as the AIDS capital of Europe due to the rampant heroin usage that existed there. Coupled with the ongoing poor economic climate throughout the country, for young men who wished to maintain pride in themselves as well as a sense of belonging to something the new casual hooligan culture was an alternative route to embark upon.
However the congeniality was not a constant throughout the rest of the Hibs support who in the main still wore team colours at matches. Referred to as scarfers, or more playfully as cavemen by the Hibs boys, a popular chant at the time that was adopted by some Hibs scarfers was ‘Oh it’s magic, you know, Hi-bees and casuals don’t go’ and this dislike was tangible at home matches between the CCS and other sections of the Hibs crowd.
A pivotal moment in this formative season was when the CCS encountered the leading casual gang at the time in Scotland the Aberdeen Soccer Casuals before a Hibs v Aberdeen game in Edinburgh. The two móbs clashed on Easter Road and after some fighting the CCS ran away but one Hibs boy got severely beaten and was in a coma for a week. Rather than deter them this near tragedy emboldened the fledgling gang to continue with their efforts in being casual hooligans. At the next Hibs match which was against local rivals Hearts at Tynecastle the CCS fared a lot better when they came up against the notorious Gorgie Aggro and this also proved to be a turning point in the Edinburgh football hooligan scene.
Membership wasn’t even restricted to only Hibs fans. Over the years casuals from Hearts and sometimes Old Firm fans who lived in Edinburgh were integrated into the mob. These individuals usually had a more rigorous initiation than normal as asides from the reservations of some CCS members they also had to prove their worth against the team that they were originally associated with.
There was also the need initially for hooligans younger than ones in the main mob to form their own identifiable group and could also be managed and trained by older more experienced hooligans. In later times a type of apprenticeship scheme was used to enable the veterans in the CCS to select and mentor prospective younger hooligans.
Eventually some offspring of Hibs casuals took to being the new younger additions to the Hibs mob. This father-to-son tradition also occurred with other mobs as was exampled in action when sons from the CCS and CSF were involved in an altercation outside an entertainment complex in Edinburgh.
The following is a list of elements of the CCS that are recognised internally by the gang as well as outside parties.
Blackleys Baby Crew (BBC) - Formed in 1985 mainly by the younger siblings and associates of the original members. Named after the manager of the football club
at the time, John Blackley
. This group was dissolved once its prolific members attained full acceptance by the main mob.
Lassie Soccer Trendies (LST) - Females who were either girlfriends or groupies of CCS members. The older or more male only gang purists amongst the CCS were often embarrassed by the existence of this set of wanna-be gang members. Despite these reservations this group flourished and was never really dropped completely until 1988, though by then the women involved in it had taken on a more jocular approach to what they had participated in.
The Family - In 1986 a hardcore section of the gang wanted to create a specific identity for the most dedicated and enthusiastic members. The nomenclature of CCS was felt by the participants to be the generic title for all casual
hooligans who had attached themselves to Hibernian regardless of the individuals capabilities or reputation.
Hibs Baby Crew (HBC) - Circa 1987 the popularity of football hooliganism and of the CCS activities had attracted another set of young and eager recruits. The dissolution of this group followed the same pattern as the BBC.
Hibs Young Team (HYT) - By the early part of the 21st century there was a further wave of casual styled hooligans in Scotland. This consisted of youths attracted to football hooliganism in the same way ever since the phenomena began, quite often enough they could have been sons or nephews of older hooligans.
If the opposing gang were in a police escort then a group of Hibs boys made their way to the front of it whilst another group would hang around at the back. The bunch at the front would act as a decoy and start causing trouble in an attempt to lure all the police officers to rush in and assist their colleagues. This left the area at the back of the opposition firm open to attack by the expectant Hibs mob positioned there.
On match days in Edinburgh a favoured gathering place would be the Penny Black pub on West Register Street situated near to Waverley station just off the east end of Princes Street. This back-street public house, and the convenience of a café and betting office below it, kept the Hibs boys out of the eyes of police in the days before adequate CCTV coverage of the city centre. Members of the Baby Crew would be positioned with a line of sight on the exits from the station to enable them to determine what potential route visiting soccer crews would take and likely points where to confront the opposition.
Nearer to the stadium the CCS would frequent pubs such as the Thistle Bar, Albion Bar and the Royal Nip, which was considered by many Hibs boys as their spiritual home. Often though the CCS would head to the Ladbrokes bookmakers that was situated on Easter Road at the junction with Bothwell Street to hang around the premises and wait for their moment of opportunity to take on other firms. It was here that visiting fans were finally marshalled away from the accessible public area and either directed to or escorted to their allocated section of the ground.
During the 1980s the Wimpy burger bar on the junction of Princes Street and Castle Street provided a suitable hang out for the perennial presence of the Hibs casuals on the main thoroughfare in the capital. Mainly in attendance were the BBC, who were known to be there from mid-morning until midnight, and by the evening a mob of around 50-60 CCS could gather there.
For away matches the favoured mode of transport in the first few years was on the scheduled train services from either Waverley or Haymarket stations. The information for the meeting point was often communicated by the use of party invitation cards that detailed the venue and time.
These stations provided direct access to the requisite city or town centre and from there the CCS would walk to the football stadium regardless of distance. This would allow the Hibs boys to be on show for any rival crews along the way to have the opportunity to interact with them. When the casual presence at Scottish football was eventually acknowledged by the authorities the hooligans travelling in this manner became easier targets for the police to intercept and contain. Sometimes it was necessary to make use of hired coaches, rented or privately owned vehicles like cars, mini-buses and transit vans to circumvent anticipated police measures in place around main train stations.
Police intelligence efforts and the effective use of closed-circuit television cameras impinged upon these methods of initiating confrontation and mobile phones became the preferred means to make arrangements with rival mobs.The internet has also claimed to have been utilised in such a way to co-ordinate football related disorder.Another approach employed to evade police observation involved meeting representatives of an opposing gang the day before a match and showing them a route and pub to congregate in that could avoid CCTV detection. An illustration of this occurred prior to a pre-season friendly at Easter Road Stadium against Leeds United in 2004.
In the brief appearances the club has made in European competitions since the inception of the gang there has also been incidents of note against FC Liege
, Anderlecht, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Maribor
.Giulianotti, R. (1992). Hibs boys disturb the Leiges in casual fashion. The Herald , 13 October.
For Scotland national team
games they were most active when they played England
on either side of the border but were also heavily involved for a match against the Netherlands
in Utrecht in the mid-1990s.Adam Brown Fanatics: Power, Identity and Fandom in Football Routledge; First Edition edition (July 28, 1998) ISBN 978-0415181037Hooligan '96 [VHS] [1996]# Pearson New Entertainment VHS Release Date: 20 May 1996 ASIN: B000059ZECCasuals make it the battle of Trafalgar II - Anna Smith - Daily Record". 16-06-1996.
Pre-season friendlies that were played against either fairly large English clubs or ones that contained a known hooligan following such as Newcastle United, Oldham Athletic, Burnley
, Aston Villa, Millwall
, Leeds United, Preston North End, Sunderland
and Bolton Wanderers have also led to hooligan incidents. One friendly at home that had been arranged with Chelsea
in the early 1990s had potentially serious touble averted by police action against a travelling group of well known Chelsea hooligans.Edinburgh Evening News Monday 5th August 1991, Crime Reporter Scott DouglasThe Sun, 18th August 1990, News Group Newspapers
were on the brink of financial ruin in 1990. Wallace Mercer
, the chairman of Edinburgh derby
rivals Hearts
, proposed a merger of the two clubs, but the Hibs fans believed that the proposal was little more than a hostile takeover. They formed the Hands off Hibs group to campaign for the continued existence of the club.
Although the CCS were never accepted by the club as real fans and despite the antipathy often shown towards them from other numerous Hibs supporters, the gang were also opposed to this threat to the club's future. The CCS launched a graffiti campaign aimed directly at the Hearts chairman. There was also unsubstantiated accusations of death threats, attacks on Mercer's business property and of a bullet being sent to him with his name on it.http://www.nationalist.ie/7140/Mercer-Merger-20-Years-on.6338070.jp
, Airdrie
and Rangers
. The SNF was unreservedly right wing in its political motivations, and there was media suggestions that it had been encouraged by extremist fascist groups such as the British National Party
.http://www.thefreelibrary.com/EVIL!%3b+The+rude+the+bad+and+the+ugly...+return+of+the+scum+that+tried...-a060756344http://www.thefreelibrary.com/NAZI+SCUM+TEAMING+UP+WITH+THE+CASUALS%3b+CURSE+OF+THE+CASUALS+DAY+THREE...-a0100167023 The intention of this new mob was to cause trouble at any game they appeared at, regardless of who was playing, either in Scotland, England or abroad, such as during the 1998 World Cup in France.http://clk.atdmt.com/goiframe/11/242458601/direct/01Three held as casuals go on the rampage in Spain.Daily Record June 19, 1998 This gang existed for only a short time and when it was disbanded the CCS members of it went on to become a significant part of the Manchester United superfirm the Men in Black.Tony O'Neill,The Men in Black: Inside Manchester United's Football Hooligan Firm, Milo Books, ISBN 1903854520
(1991). Hampden Babylon: Sex and Scandal in Scottish football . Edinburgh: Canongate Press.http://www.madnesstradingring.com/InPrint/1992/DailyRecordDec1992.html
ISBN 978-0-415-09838-0 (paperback) 978-0-203-63988-7 (electronic)
has included many references to the gang in his books and the main character in Marabou Stork Nightmares
was a frontline CCS member.Welsh I (2002) Porno (London: Jonathan Cape).Welsh I (2001a) Glue (London: Jonathan Cape).Welsh I (1995) Marabou Stork Nightmares (London: Jonathan Cape).Welsh I (1994) The Acid House (London: Jonathan Cape)
In 2006 The Real Football Factories
was a documentary series shown on the Bravo TV channel in the UK and created by Zig Zag Productions. The show looked at the in-depth life of football hooligans and hooligan firms. Interviews were conducted with past and present hooligans and the episode that focused on Scottish hooligans included a segment on the CCS.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
football hooligan
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
firm associated with Hibernian
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...
and active from 1984 when the casual
Casual
In the European tradition, casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is...
hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligans attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding areas gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the general public as the Hibs Casuals though within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs boys.
The Capital City Service (CCS) is a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
football hooligan
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
firm associated with Hibernian
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...
and active from 1984 when the casual
Casual
In the European tradition, casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is...
hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligans attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding areas gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the general public as the Hibs Casuals though within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs boys.
The Capital City Service (CCS) is a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
football hooligan
Football hooliganism
Football hooliganism, sometimes referred to by the British media as the English Disease, is unruly and destructive behaviour—such as brawls, vandalism and intimidation—by association football club fans...
firm associated with Hibernian
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...
and active from 1984 when the casual
Casual
In the European tradition, casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is...
hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligans attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding areas gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the general public as the Hibs Casuals though within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs boys.
Formation
In the early 1980s Hibs away fixtures were regularly attended by fans on supporters buses from amongst areas in Edinburgh such as Leith, Niddrie, Tollcross and Granton. This afforded the opportunity for bonds to be forged through the shared experiences of following the team and responding to the actions of opposing fans. An away match in November 1983 against Airdrie resulted in a clash with the well known local hooligans, Section BSection B
Section B are a group of football fans and supporters who have followed Airdrieonians F.C. and more recently Airdrie United F.C., in Scottish football. Formed in 1977, the group have been well known throughout Scottish football for their boisterous, voiciferous and often violent behaviour for...
, which further strengthened these connections and helped bolster the young Hibs boys confidence into forming a casual style hooligan firm. This new friendship of youths from different areas of the city was a contrast to the existing area gang ethos that had been a feature of the capital since the 1950s. The camaraderie branched out from match days as the gang members also hung about with each other during the week. Word soon got round and the basis of the first known unified Edinburgh gang was in place.
Edinburgh at that time had become known as the AIDS capital of Europe due to the rampant heroin usage that existed there. Coupled with the ongoing poor economic climate throughout the country, for young men who wished to maintain pride in themselves as well as a sense of belonging to something the new casual hooligan culture was an alternative route to embark upon.
However the congeniality was not a constant throughout the rest of the Hibs support who in the main still wore team colours at matches. Referred to as scarfers, or more playfully as cavemen by the Hibs boys, a popular chant at the time that was adopted by some Hibs scarfers was ‘Oh it’s magic, you know, Hi-bees and casuals don’t go’ and this dislike was tangible at home matches between the CCS and other sections of the Hibs crowd.
A pivotal moment in this formative season was when the CCS encountered the leading casual gang at the time in Scotland the Aberdeen Soccer Casuals before a Hibs v Aberdeen game in Edinburgh. The two móbs clashed on Easter Road and after some fighting the CCS ran away but one Hibs boy got severely beaten and was in a coma for a week. Rather than deter them this near tragedy emboldened the fledgling gang to continue with their efforts in being casual hooligans. At the next Hibs match which was against local rivals Hearts at Tynecastle the CCS fared a lot better when they came up against the notorious Gorgie Aggro and this also proved to be a turning point in the Edinburgh football hooligan scene.
Structure within the gang
As the CCS evolved an informal hierarchy appeared but there was no singular leader or ‘top boy’ as was usual for other crews. Instead a committee of five individuals who had garnered enough respect amongst their peers took to the task of planning and organising for the gangs activities at football. By the early to mid 1990s this system had expired and was replaced mainly by two protagonists who arranged most battles and who were also striving for control of the mob.Membership wasn’t even restricted to only Hibs fans. Over the years casuals from Hearts and sometimes Old Firm fans who lived in Edinburgh were integrated into the mob. These individuals usually had a more rigorous initiation than normal as asides from the reservations of some CCS members they also had to prove their worth against the team that they were originally associated with.
There was also the need initially for hooligans younger than ones in the main mob to form their own identifiable group and could also be managed and trained by older more experienced hooligans. In later times a type of apprenticeship scheme was used to enable the veterans in the CCS to select and mentor prospective younger hooligans.
Eventually some offspring of Hibs casuals took to being the new younger additions to the Hibs mob. This father-to-son tradition also occurred with other mobs as was exampled in action when sons from the CCS and CSF were involved in an altercation outside an entertainment complex in Edinburgh.
The following is a list of elements of the CCS that are recognised internally by the gang as well as outside parties.
Blackleys Baby Crew (BBC) - Formed in 1985 mainly by the younger siblings and associates of the original members. Named after the manager of the football club
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...
at the time, John Blackley
John Blackley
John Henderson Blackley is a Scottish football coach and former player.Blackley made 279 appearances at centre-half for Hibernian and also represented Newcastle United, Preston North End and Hamilton Academical...
. This group was dissolved once its prolific members attained full acceptance by the main mob.
Lassie Soccer Trendies (LST) - Females who were either girlfriends or groupies of CCS members. The older or more male only gang purists amongst the CCS were often embarrassed by the existence of this set of wanna-be gang members. Despite these reservations this group flourished and was never really dropped completely until 1988, though by then the women involved in it had taken on a more jocular approach to what they had participated in.
The Family - In 1986 a hardcore section of the gang wanted to create a specific identity for the most dedicated and enthusiastic members. The nomenclature of CCS was felt by the participants to be the generic title for all casual
Casual
In the European tradition, casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is...
hooligans who had attached themselves to Hibernian regardless of the individuals capabilities or reputation.
Hibs Baby Crew (HBC) - Circa 1987 the popularity of football hooliganism and of the CCS activities had attracted another set of young and eager recruits. The dissolution of this group followed the same pattern as the BBC.
Hibs Young Team (HYT) - By the early part of the 21st century there was a further wave of casual styled hooligans in Scotland. This consisted of youths attracted to football hooliganism in the same way ever since the phenomena began, quite often enough they could have been sons or nephews of older hooligans.
Tactics
A concerted effort was made to apply some strategic thinking to the CCS activity at the football. In readiness to face other hooligan gangs a formation was opted for that consisted of a front line of around twenty self-proclaimed “nutters” who initiated the confrontation with their rivals and directly behind them were other enthusiastic battle lines ready to support the attack. Whenever possible they tried to ambush another crew and strike them at the weakest point which was usually in the middle of their mob, the perception being that this section contained few if any of their adversaries more competent fighters. This tended to make an easier job of splitting up the other mob and dispatching their less robust members quickly.If the opposing gang were in a police escort then a group of Hibs boys made their way to the front of it whilst another group would hang around at the back. The bunch at the front would act as a decoy and start causing trouble in an attempt to lure all the police officers to rush in and assist their colleagues. This left the area at the back of the opposition firm open to attack by the expectant Hibs mob positioned there.
On match days in Edinburgh a favoured gathering place would be the Penny Black pub on West Register Street situated near to Waverley station just off the east end of Princes Street. This back-street public house, and the convenience of a café and betting office below it, kept the Hibs boys out of the eyes of police in the days before adequate CCTV coverage of the city centre. Members of the Baby Crew would be positioned with a line of sight on the exits from the station to enable them to determine what potential route visiting soccer crews would take and likely points where to confront the opposition.
Nearer to the stadium the CCS would frequent pubs such as the Thistle Bar, Albion Bar and the Royal Nip, which was considered by many Hibs boys as their spiritual home. Often though the CCS would head to the Ladbrokes bookmakers that was situated on Easter Road at the junction with Bothwell Street to hang around the premises and wait for their moment of opportunity to take on other firms. It was here that visiting fans were finally marshalled away from the accessible public area and either directed to or escorted to their allocated section of the ground.
During the 1980s the Wimpy burger bar on the junction of Princes Street and Castle Street provided a suitable hang out for the perennial presence of the Hibs casuals on the main thoroughfare in the capital. Mainly in attendance were the BBC, who were known to be there from mid-morning until midnight, and by the evening a mob of around 50-60 CCS could gather there.
For away matches the favoured mode of transport in the first few years was on the scheduled train services from either Waverley or Haymarket stations. The information for the meeting point was often communicated by the use of party invitation cards that detailed the venue and time.
These stations provided direct access to the requisite city or town centre and from there the CCS would walk to the football stadium regardless of distance. This would allow the Hibs boys to be on show for any rival crews along the way to have the opportunity to interact with them. When the casual presence at Scottish football was eventually acknowledged by the authorities the hooligans travelling in this manner became easier targets for the police to intercept and contain. Sometimes it was necessary to make use of hired coaches, rented or privately owned vehicles like cars, mini-buses and transit vans to circumvent anticipated police measures in place around main train stations.
Police intelligence efforts and the effective use of closed-circuit television cameras impinged upon these methods of initiating confrontation and mobile phones became the preferred means to make arrangements with rival mobs.The internet has also claimed to have been utilised in such a way to co-ordinate football related disorder.Another approach employed to evade police observation involved meeting representatives of an opposing gang the day before a match and showing them a route and pub to congregate in that could avoid CCTV detection. An illustration of this occurred prior to a pre-season friendly at Easter Road Stadium against Leeds United in 2004.
Activity
The CCS have had clashes all across Scotland, England and Europe either when Hibernian or Scotland were playing or as invited (and sometimes not invited) guests of other English hooligan firms at various English league games.Allan, J. (1989). Bloody Casuals: Diary of a Football Hooligan. Glasgow: Famedram.Brimson D (2003) Eurotrashed (Edinburgh: Mainstream)Carrick D with King M (2006) Rangers ICF (London: Headhunter)Ferguson C Bring Out Your Riot Gear – Hearts are here! Gorgie Aggro 1981-1986. S T Publishing (August 16, 1999) Edinburgh: Terrrace Banter ISBN 978-0953592005Lowles N and Nicholls A (2007) Hooligans A-L Vol 1 (Wrea Green: Milo)McCall K and Robb J (2007) After the Match, The Game Begins (London: John Blake)O’Kane J (2006) Celtic Soccer Crew: What The Hell Do We Care (Hove: Pennant)Pennant C (2005) Top Boys: Meet The Men Behind The Mayhem (London: John Blake)Pennant C and King M (2003) Terrace Legends (London: John Blake)Rivers D (2005) Congratulations, You Have Been A Victim of Casual Violence: the True Story of Aberdeen’s Staunchest Fans (London: John Blake)Robson G (2000) ‘ No One Likes Us, We Don’t Care’: the Myth and Reality of Millwall Fandom (Oxford: Berg)Thornton P (2003) Casuals: Football, Fighting and Fashion. The Story of a Terrace Cult ISBN 978-1903854143(Lytham: Milo)Saturday is Service day, Calum BellIn the brief appearances the club has made in European competitions since the inception of the gang there has also been incidents of note against FC Liege
R.F.C. de Liège
Royal Football Club de Liège is a Belgian football club from the city of Liège. It currently plays in the Belgian Third Division. Its matricule is 4, meaning that it was the fourth club to register with the country's national federation, and the club was the first Belgian champion in history...
, Anderlecht, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Maribor
NK Maribor
Nogometni Klub Maribor , commonly referred to as NK Maribor or simply Maribor, is a professional association football club based in the city of Maribor, Slovenia. Founded on 12 December, 1960, Maribor is one of only three football clubs in the country who have never been relegated from...
.Giulianotti, R. (1992). Hibs boys disturb the Leiges in casual fashion. The Herald , 13 October.
For Scotland national team
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
games they were most active when they played England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
on either side of the border but were also heavily involved for a match against the Netherlands
Netherlands national football team
The Netherlands National Football Team represents the Netherlands in association football and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association , the governing body for football in the Netherlands...
in Utrecht in the mid-1990s.Adam Brown Fanatics: Power, Identity and Fandom in Football Routledge; First Edition edition (July 28, 1998) ISBN 978-0415181037Hooligan '96 [VHS] [1996]# Pearson New Entertainment VHS Release Date: 20 May 1996 ASIN: B000059ZECCasuals make it the battle of Trafalgar II - Anna Smith - Daily Record". 16-06-1996.
Pre-season friendlies that were played against either fairly large English clubs or ones that contained a known hooligan following such as Newcastle United, Oldham Athletic, Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
, Aston Villa, Millwall
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
, Leeds United, Preston North End, Sunderland
Sunderland A.F.C.
Sunderland Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear who currently play in the Premier League...
and Bolton Wanderers have also led to hooligan incidents. One friendly at home that had been arranged with Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
in the early 1990s had potentially serious touble averted by police action against a travelling group of well known Chelsea hooligans.Edinburgh Evening News Monday 5th August 1991, Crime Reporter Scott DouglasThe Sun, 18th August 1990, News Group Newspapers
Club in crisis
After mismanagement during the late 1980s, HibernianHibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Leith, in the north of Edinburgh. They are one of two Scottish Premier League clubs in the city, the other being their Edinburgh derby rivals, Hearts...
were on the brink of financial ruin in 1990. Wallace Mercer
Wallace Mercer
Wallace Mercer was chairman of the Scottish football club Heart of Midlothian from 1981 to 1994.-Hearts:He is remembered mainly for improving the fortunes of Hearts during the early 1980s...
, the chairman of Edinburgh derby
Edinburgh derby
The Edinburgh derby is an informal title given to any football match played between Scottish clubs Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian , the two professional clubs based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The two clubs have a fierce rivalry that dates back to the clubs being founded in the mid-1870s, which...
rivals Hearts
Heart of Midlothian F.C.
Heart of Midlothian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian...
, proposed a merger of the two clubs, but the Hibs fans believed that the proposal was little more than a hostile takeover. They formed the Hands off Hibs group to campaign for the continued existence of the club.
Although the CCS were never accepted by the club as real fans and despite the antipathy often shown towards them from other numerous Hibs supporters, the gang were also opposed to this threat to the club's future. The CCS launched a graffiti campaign aimed directly at the Hearts chairman. There was also unsubstantiated accusations of death threats, attacks on Mercer's business property and of a bullet being sent to him with his name on it.http://www.nationalist.ie/7140/Mercer-Merger-20-Years-on.6338070.jp
Splinter group
By the late 1990s a split within the gang led to some members creating a Scottish National Firm (SNF), made up of hooligans from other clubs in the country and also included hooligans from traditionally hated clubs such as HeartsHeart of Midlothian F.C.
Heart of Midlothian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian...
, Airdrie
Airdrieonians F.C.
Airdrieonians Football Club, more commonly known as Airdrie, were a Scottish professional football team from the town of Airdrie, in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire....
and Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
. The SNF was unreservedly right wing in its political motivations, and there was media suggestions that it had been encouraged by extremist fascist groups such as the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
.http://www.thefreelibrary.com/EVIL!%3b+The+rude+the+bad+and+the+ugly...+return+of+the+scum+that+tried...-a060756344http://www.thefreelibrary.com/NAZI+SCUM+TEAMING+UP+WITH+THE+CASUALS%3b+CURSE+OF+THE+CASUALS+DAY+THREE...-a0100167023 The intention of this new mob was to cause trouble at any game they appeared at, regardless of who was playing, either in Scotland, England or abroad, such as during the 1998 World Cup in France.http://clk.atdmt.com/goiframe/11/242458601/direct/01Three held as casuals go on the rampage in Spain.Daily Record June 19, 1998 This gang existed for only a short time and when it was disbanded the CCS members of it went on to become a significant part of the Manchester United superfirm the Men in Black.Tony O'Neill,The Men in Black: Inside Manchester United's Football Hooligan Firm, Milo Books, ISBN 1903854520
Other law & order issues
Over the years accusations of a range of criminal activity not linked to football has been levelled towards the CCS as a whole as well as individuals within it. The police have been quoted in the Scottish press as stating the gang (or its members) have carried out or are responsible for organising armed robberies, shoplifting sprees, street muggings, housebreakings, protection rackets, extortionism, drug dealing and murders as well as continuous public order offences around night life in pubs and clubs. This led to their inclusion in a Home Office Affairs Committee investigation into football hooligan gangs activity in the UK in the early 1990s.Home Affairs Committee (1990). Policing Football Hooliganism: Memoranda of Evidence . London: HMSO. Home Affairs Committee (1991). Policing Football Hooliganism: Second Report. London: HMSO.Cosgrove, S.Stuart Cosgrove
Stuart Cosgrove is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster and television executive. As a journalist Cosgrove served on the NME and The Face during the 1980s, before joining Channel 4 in April 1994, serving for eight years as Controller of Arts and Entertainment and currently as Head of Programmes...
(1991). Hampden Babylon: Sex and Scandal in Scottish football . Edinburgh: Canongate Press.http://www.madnesstradingring.com/InPrint/1992/DailyRecordDec1992.html
Football hooliganism research
They were also the subject or included in several social anthropological studies by academia in the UK.Finn, G. (1987). Casual Talk and Casual Observation: The Phenomenon of the “Soccer Casuals”. Invited paper to the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Scottish Branch of the British Psychological Society, Glasgow.Finn, G. (1989). “Tae be there an' that”: The Creation of Social Realities and Social Identities Among the Football “Casuals”. Paper to the Annual Conference of the Scottish Branch of the British Psychological Society, Glasgow, September.Giulianotti, R. & Armstrong, G. 2002. 'Avenues of Contestation: football hooligans running and ruling urban spaces'. Social AnthropologyViolence, carnival and reformation: Scottish Fan Identities, Richard GIULIANOTTI Department of Sociology University of AberdeenUngentlemanly Conduct:Football Hooligans, the Media and the Construction of Notoriety, Richard Giulianotti Department of Sociology University of Aberdeen Gary Armstrong Department of Sociology University of ReadingFootball, Violence and Social Identity Richard GuilianottiISBN 978-0-415-09838-0 (paperback) 978-0-203-63988-7 (electronic)
In popular culture
The author Irvine WelshIrvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
has included many references to the gang in his books and the main character in Marabou Stork Nightmares
Marabou Stork Nightmares
Marabou Stork Nightmares is a novel by Irvine Welsh.The book's narrative is split into two styles: a conventional first person account of the past and a more surreal, stream of consciousness account of an otherworldly present. Like many of Welsh's novels, its tone veers from black comedy to...
was a frontline CCS member.Welsh I (2002) Porno (London: Jonathan Cape).Welsh I (2001a) Glue (London: Jonathan Cape).Welsh I (1995) Marabou Stork Nightmares (London: Jonathan Cape).Welsh I (1994) The Acid House (London: Jonathan Cape)
In 2006 The Real Football Factories
The Real Football Factories
The Real Football Factories is a documentary series shown on the Bravo TV channel in the UK and created by Zig Zag Productions. The show looks at the in-depth life of football hooligans and hooligan firms. Interviews are conducted with past and present hooligans.The presenter of the show, Danny...
was a documentary series shown on the Bravo TV channel in the UK and created by Zig Zag Productions. The show looked at the in-depth life of football hooligans and hooligan firms. Interviews were conducted with past and present hooligans and the episode that focused on Scottish hooligans included a segment on the CCS.