Inter City Firm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since July 2006.

The Inter City Firm ('ICF') was a UK football firm affiliated to West Ham United, so called because they used the InterCity train network to get to away games. They were extremely active in the 1970s and 1980s. Bill Gardner was generally recognised as the firm's leader or "top boy".

Another, self-proclaimed, leading figure was Cass Pennant, who authored one of the very few books on the subject to be written by a supposed genuine top flight member of a firm, Congratulations You Have Just Met the ICF. In this book, two factors made clear are that the ICF were not ostensibly a racist or right-wing firm, and that they were notably averse to joining up with firms of other teams whilst supporting the England national team. The former assertion, and indeed Pennant's veracity, has been much disputed by many from inside and outside the ICF. Also mentioned is the reluctance of other teams' firms to travel to Upton Park in any great numbers and, this being true, it is evidence of the ICF's supremacy at the time.

They were probably the most notorious of the hooligan firms that existed in the so-called "golden age" of football hooliganism, although the Chelsea Headhunters, the Birmingham Zulus and Millwall Bushwhackers also had fearsome reputations.

The ICF:

were the basis of Alan Clarke's TV one-off The Firm. (Clarke is more famous for his portrayal of Borstal life in the film Scum.) Gary Oldman plays Bex Bissell, the leader of the firm.
also make an appearance in Irvine Welsh's series of novellas Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.

Both accounts tell of frictions between members of the group who live in areas around the ground and those who live in more suburban areas including Essex.

The 2005 film Green Street Hooligans was based around the firm, but did not use it by name. Instead, the acronym 'GSE' (for Green Street Elite) was used.

Bill Gardner, the leading figure of the ICF, recently wrote a book entitled "Good afternoon gentlemen, the name's Bill Gardner".