Men In Black

Just as Manchester United is one of the biggest football clubs in the beautiful game, so their fanatical firm, the Red Army, is said to have had the largest numbers at the height of Britain’s hooligan problem. While the name the Red Army is also used to refer to Man U’s fans in general, in the mid-’70s the name became synonymous with some of the defining incidents in British hooliganism, notoriously in 1974-75 when United had been relegated from the top flight of English football for one season and hordes of thugs wreaked havoc at stadiums up and down the country, sometimes outnumbering the home support. Their activities led to the introduction of crowd segregation and fencing at football grounds in England. Mass tear ups with other firms are well documented, with the 1985 documentary ‘Hooligan’ showing the Red Army clashing with West Ham’s Inter City Firm around Manchester. Mob rules.

From the late Eighties to the new Millennium, one football gang dominated the streets and terraces. Older, harder and better organised than their foes, they travelled everywhere and feared no-one. After one spectacular victory, a vanquished rival gave them the name that became a byword for soccer violence: The Men In Black. Manchester United's hooligan mob had long caused mayhem, but in 1989 their hardcore was the target of a massive undercover police investigation, codenamed Operation Mars. It focused on the most infamous of the firm's members, including its `general', Tony O'Neill, and led to more than thirty arrests. But when the trial collapsed, the firm returned to the fray, wiser, more cunning and more ruthless than ever before. They went on to defend their fearsome reputation against the toughest outfits in Britain; the Soul Crew, the Zulu Warriors, the Boro Frontline and the ICF. They were never defeated.