VIOLENT football ultras have been organising sick Fight-Club style brawls in forests across Europe to avoid detection by police.
Now there are signs the bloody rise in well-organised footie violence sweeping the continent could be creeping back into this country.
Ten Manchester United fans were arrested in a string of dawn raids on Wednesday following a massive organised bust-up with Dutch team Twente in September.
September’s mass brawl, involving around 80 men, happened in an area of wasteland in Salford, around four miles from Old Trafford.
Photos went round social media apparently showing masked mobs posing for pics before the fight.
One had the caption: “Manchester United vs FC Twente, 40×40 fair fight, win Manchester United, Twente run”
The fight spilled over into a pub after Dutch supporters were allegedly followed, prompting terrified staff to ring the police.
In the aftermath, fans congratulated themselves on a “fair fight” – although one Dutch man complained the England “side” was bigger than agreed.
The following night, United played out a 1-1 draw with FC Twente at Old Trafford in the Europa League.
A major police investigation followed, with specialist officers scouring CCTV from around the stadium and
Greater Manchester Police arrested the “high risk” supporters, aged 20-64, on suspicion of violent disorder for their alleged involvement in the clash.
The investigation into the brawl and more arrests could follow.
A police spokesman said Wednesday’s arrests were part of a crackdown ahead of Sunday’s Manchester derby.
Chief Superintendent Colette Rose, of GMP, said: “Our proactive and positive action today has been targeted to highlight that organised violence of any kind has no place in Greater Manchester.
Football hooliganism, glorified in books, on film and around pub tables, has been steadily declining in the UK since its bloody height in the ‘80s.
The law was tightened in 1989 to allow harsher punishments for brawling fans, more CCTV meant and cops had eyes everywhere, and attitudes slowly shifted against the violence.
Recently, Europe has seen a rise in ultras who arrange scraps on the web, before meeting up in real life to tear chunks out of each other.
Violence has occasionally marred England’s international fixtures on the continent, such as the carnage that unfolded when Russian ultras launched a barbaric assault on Brit fans during the 2016 Euros.
The culture spread deep through countries like Poland, the Netherlands, France and Germany – whilst the UK looked on, shaking its head.
But do Wednesday’s arrests represent a return to old ways – is England once again becoming infected by the English disease?
Geoff Pearson, a professor of law at the University of Manchester and an expert on the subject, told the Mail that pre-arranged fights between rival footie fans are common in eastern and southern Europe – but rare in this country.
Another significant example he noted was an arranged fight between Brentford and Millwall in August 2018, when one side went shirtless so they could be told apart.
The grisly pre-match brawl, filmed on mobiles and uploaded to YouTube, led to six Brentford fans being charged and sentenced to a mixture of community service and suspended jail terms.
The most severe punishment was for a 28-year-old who acted as “referee” for the fight – stopping things when someone was knocked down so the sides could “reset”.
The man from Pinner received 12-month suspended prison sentence and 200 hours unpaid work.
This level of organisation is increasingly seen in fan bust-ups, according to Dr Pearson.
He said the scuffles are usually planned on WhatsApp, away from the eyes of the police, and footage uploaded to social media afterwards boasting of the violence.
Hooliganism has surged in the Netherlands since February 2022 when Covid restrictions were lifted.
Dutch criminologist Tom van Ham, who researched organised hooligan fights for his PhD, has learned how the fights over there are planned.
He said that the fighters involved might not learn the details until the last minute, while the leaders of the “firms” refer to the plans in code – such as “going to a birthday party”.
The location is often rural to minimise the chance of detection.
In an article for the European Journal of Criminology in 2020, Dr van Ham wrote that “clear terms are set in advance about the number of people that will participate” and a decision over whether weapons are allowed is made.
He added: “Our data suggests that the use of weapons is generally not accepted and that other ‘rules of engagement’ are used (for example, when someone is lying on the ground they are to be left alone).”
In December last year, Turkey temporarily pulled the plug on all footie fixtures after a referee was punched to the ground by a raging club president.
Also last year, Greece banned fans from top-flight football games for two months after violence erupted between rival volleyball supporters in Athens, severely injuring a police officer.
The opening game for both sides has already been labelled as a “very high risk” match by German cops with 1,300 extra officers being deployed on matchday as well as heavily increased surveillance.
This year, England fans were warned that a 500-strong army of “violence-seeking Serbian hooligans” were planning to swarm their Euros clash om Germany.
The opening game for both sides was labelled as a “very high risk” match by German cops with 1,300 extra officers being deployed on matchday as well as heavily increased surveillance.
