After 30 years: It's the return of the football hooligans

Reporter Joe Shute on the front line of the police's battle against a new generation of football hooligan.

IT IS a few minutes before kick off and the police are on red alert.

Tensions are already running high ahead of the FA Cup replay between York City and Rotherham United following a flare-up of violence in the first leg where teenage hooligans burnt seats, let off a firework in the stadium and clashed with riot police.

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Intelligence officers have been tipped off that 350 members of the infamous Leeds Service Crew – Leeds United's gang of hooligans – are planning to descend on the city for a revenge attack on York thugs who trashed one of their pubs on their way back from the Rotherham match the week before.

As thousands of fans swarm into York's Bootham Crescent ground, everybody over the age of 18 is searched thoroughly by club stewards before they are let in.

A special police operation involving officers from across the force has been put into place, with dog units, specially trained spotters and evidence gathering teams patrolling around the stadium.

Suddenly a group of teenagers sat at the front of the home end start chanting "We are Leeds" – and police radios burst into life.

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It feels like a throwback to the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s when Britain's football hooligans shamed the country in the eyes of the world.

But this was two nights ago.

A new generation of teenage football yobs has sparked a resurgence in hooliganism across Britain, and particularly, in Yorkshire.

The gangs, some members as young as 14, are often the children or relatives of former hooligans, now in their 40s and 50s and inspired by recent films and books glamorising their actions.

They employ new tactics to try and sneak under the police radar, driving in convoys rather than travelling on trains or specially hired coaches and focusing on lower league matches which are less heavily policed than the big clubs.

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Many teams now have two gangs with a level of succession between them – York City has the York Nomads and a new younger group, the Jorvik Reds

But the intention of the new modern-day hooligans remains very much the same as their predecessors – to cause as much havoc as possible.

In the past year alone there has been a worrying rise in violence involving teams from across Yorkshire.

In April, 12 young Sheffield Wednesday thugs were jailed for a combined 27 years after rampaging through a train near York, attacking a group of Leeds United supporters and leaving passengers terrified.

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A few weeks later there were violent clashes at a match between Luton and York, while during the summer police had to seal off part of York city centre on a Saturday afternoon to contain a group of rioting Hull supporters.

"We were taken completely surprise by the violence", says Insp Dave Hall of North Yorkshire Police, a specialist in football violence. "It was a pre-season friendly and we had just sat down to do our final threat assessment when we were notified that 100 Hull fans had arrived at the railway station.

"They went into a nearby pub and had an altercation with some York fans and then they went into another pub where it just kicked off and they decided to start trashing the place.

"They barricaded themselves in, it was totally unexpected."

During this week's match, the police were anything but unprepared. From a command centre at Fulford Road police station and one inside the ground, police and club stewards scoured the crowd for any sign of trouble.

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The teenagers chanting Leeds songs turned out to be York supporters and despite there being groups of known hooligans, or "risk elements" as the police call them, from York and Rotherham in the crowd of 2,640, there was no trouble whatsoever – Insp Hall and his officers were meticulous in overseeing the game.

On the train back to Leeds, Rotherham fan Matt Blackburn, 18, and his friend, York fan Bradley Rhodes, 22, both students, were travelling home together.

"It does seem that Yorkshire is having a lot of problems with this at the moment", said Matt, "But I don't think it is as bad as people are saying. The vast majority of us are just decent fans."

TACTICS CHANGE WITH THE TIMES

POLICE tactics have evolved to combat the new wave of hooligans blighting the lower football leagues.

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Most clubs are assigned specialist police spotters, uniformed officers who follow known hooligans, while evidence gathering teams film suspected troublemakers in the stands.

Police also work closely with pub landlords who tip them off on the movements of gangs of suspected troublemakers.

Officers can also use Section 27 orders to move large groups of troublemakers away from hot spots, as North Yorkshire Police did successfully with a gang of rioting Hull fans recently.

Banning orders, which can last up to 10 years, have also proved extremely successful – according to the most recent Home Office statistics for the 2008/2009 season 448 were issued to Yorkshire clubs in the top four divisions.

Leeds United had 162 banning orders, the highest number in England.