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Friday, June 02, 2006

World cup copycats

Recently Dougie Brimson appeared in the Guardian, arguing that hooliganism is inevitable at the World Cup later this month. Maybe, maybe not.

But I'm not convinced by the explanation for it in his new book Kicking Off: Why Hooliganism and Racism Are Killing Football (buy it here, UK readers). Pages 87 to 92, if I recall, are dedicated to the phenomenon of 'hoolie lit', which Brimson claims to have invented - news to the late Richard Allen - and the subsequent film adaptations. (For what it's worth, I have grumbled about these films here.) Dougie - a pleasant enough political chameleon when you meet him - claims that a new generation of hooligans use these movies as training videos to get them in shape for big 'rows' on matchdays. Which is just as well for him, as he co-wrote Green Street and so gets a percentage off each copy sold. Future hooligans can buy a copy here.
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Cold War coincidences: following an earlier blog entry, where I mentioned Nathan Abrams and his meticulous research on Commentary magazine, he also pops up on Oliver Kamm's neo-con blog (here). Further related events at this time include the death of right-wing thinker Peter Viereck and the DVD of The House on Carroll Street (1987) gracing my TV screen in the same week. Small world.

1 Comments:

Blogger Reel Fanatic said...

As a yank going across the pond to watch the World Cup next week, here's hoping I manage to have a great time without getting my head bashed in ... as a cautionary tale, I've been reading Buford's "Among the Thugs" again ... scary stuff

12:08 pm  

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