Quote Originally Posted by Nameless View Post
Quote Originally Posted by hattonthehammer View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Nameless View Post

Then,if it happens, let me know, we'll be two to get the evil eye all around

football is the one sole sport that regales fans with such passion that more than often it does spill out onto the streets and crowd violence is all too common in our beloved game.

I could be seen anywhere in the world wearing a west ham tshirt and nobody would but flutter an eyelid. However if i were to wear it in areas of south london such as bermondsey/lewisham etc i would run the risk of someone smashing a bottle over my head.

West ham and millwalls rivalrly is one of the if not the most violent sporting conflict known. Violence erupts whenever the 2 sides meet, it goes right back to the days of the dockers and has continued ever since.

As ive already said i deplore the scum chucking bottles and bricks into random crowds not knowing whether or not it`ll hit a pregnant woman or an innocent bystander.

But if 2 sets of fans driven by hatred arrange an organised meet where they can get their frustrations out on eachother rather than innocent people i see no problem with football violence!
Personally, I disagree even with it: PEoples can get killed or as bad, permanently injured and believe me, you don't want somebody with a cranial trauma. Some of the kids involved into these "riots" are very young and easy to influence, they shouldn't not be there and are often "manipulated" by the crowd or their surrounding and would that happen a few years later, they wouldn't probably participate into such things.
Also, don't forget that the guy that dies or get injured seriously into such thing belongs to a family, by peoples that do love him. How would you feel if your son or your daughter would get killed/mangled into such thing? Personally, I would be devastated that a "stupid game" could generate enough hate to destroy a life and a family.
Thus said, what is the exact rivalry history of West Ham and Milwall? I understand that it is a dockers thing but could you tell me more?
it basically dates back towards the end of the 19th century when irish and scottish dockers who had heated rivalrys due to the works they were involved in founded 2 seperate football teams the irish came up with thames ironworks which is now known as west ham utd while the scottish dockers came up with their own entity which is now known as millwall.

The turn of the 1970s led to football violence being on the increase all over the country and millwall fc were seen as the violentist of all and their numbers exceeded even those clubs far bigger than them in support. West ham at the time was one of the premier football teams in england having come off the back of the 1966 world cup win and various trophys won by the football club. West hams hooligan support having to travel by inter city trains to get to away games came up with the name the ICF and the 2 sets of fans basically had it out whenever possible. In the late 80s an arranged meet ended badly as one of their fans was thrown onto a live rail and killed instantly and its just added to the hatred felt between the 2 sets of fans.

Obviously with all this comes the element of local rivalry and you get yourself one extremely volatile game of football that these 2 can serve up.

City-united, celtic-rangers, liverpool-everton, arsenal-spurs - all just as heated rivalrys in the uk but the key diffence between ours and theirs is that they play eachother numerous times each and every season while for WHUFC-Millwall when we meet its something of a rareity and the hooligan elements within both clubs make extra sure to make the most of a rare occasion.