Chelsea Headhunters

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The Chelsea Headhunters are a football firm that are linked to the London football team Chelsea F.C.

Nearly all major football teams in Britain have suffered from violence amongst fans and many teams have a specific gang (called a "firm") of violent young men who have attached themselves to that team, comprising 'hardcore' thugs whose violence is usually organised and pre-meditated, rather than spontaneous. The Chelsea Headhunters are one of many such gangs, but are amongst the most high-profile. The biggest targets of their violence and taunting are the supporters of other London teams, in particular Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham.

There was widespread racism amongst the gang and links to various white supremacist organisations, such as Combat 18, the National Front and Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisations, such as the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force.

They were infiltrated by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre for a documentary screened on the BBC on November 9, 1999, in which MacIntyre posed as a wannabe-member of the Chelsea Headhunters. He even had a Chelsea tattoo applied to himself for authenticity, although the hardcore were surprised he chose the hated "Millwall lion" badge rather than the classic 1960s upright lion one. He confirmed the racist elements in the Headhunters and their links to Combat 18, including one top-ranking member who had been imprisoned on one occasion for possession of material related to the Ku Klux Klan.

The programme led to arrests and several convictions. However, Jason Marriner, who was convicted and sent to prison as a result of the show, has recently written a book claiming to have been set up by MacIntyre and the BBC. He claims that footage was edited and manipulated, and "incidents" were manufactured and they were convicted despite having no footage of them committing crimes.^[1]

Back in 1986, one Chelsea 'headhunter' was sentenced to life imprisonment and another was sentenced to ten years behind bars for a series of violent offences at football grounds over the country. A year later, another of the 'Headhunters' - 25-year-old Terence Matthews - was sentenced to four years in prison for an attack which almost claimed the life of a pub landlord.

Nick Love's controversial 2004 film, The Football Factory, presented the Headhunters in a fictionalized account. The film focuses mainly on the firm's violent rivalry with the notorious Bushwackers firm, who support South London, League One side Millwall.