The Arsenal firms are groups of
football hooligans who are fans of the
Arsenal Football Club
The Arsenal Football Club, commonly known as simply Arsenal, is a professional association football, football club based in London Borough of Islington, Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of ...
. There are two Arsenal firms, The Gooners (a mutation of the club's nickname, The Gunners) and The Herd. The Gooners were a violent football hooligan firm mainly active in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the name is now used by most non-hooligan
Arsenal supporters.
The Herd was mainly active between the late 1970s and early 1990s, it still exists.
The Herd are a hooligan gang. The main rivals of The Herd in the 1980s and in the present day are
West Ham
West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross.
The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...
's
I.C.F.,
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
's
Yid Army,
Chelsea's
Headhunters and
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...
's F-Troop (later known as the
Millwall Bushwackers). Although The Herd was mainly considered to be a hooligan gang, a few members were not physically violent.
Dainton Connell (aka Dainton "The Bear" Cornnell) was considered a folk hero by many Arsenal fans, but died in a car crash in 2007, with 3,000 mourners attending his funeral including several ex players.
During the 1980s, Connell was highly active in an Arsenal FC's hooligan "firm" and was a "main face" amongst the ranks. At the same time, he was influential in ensuring that the
BNP, and other far-right white-supremacist – then trying to infiltrate football firms – failed to gain any foothold at Arsenal.
The Herd's most notorious clashes were with West Ham at Upton Park in 1983, Millwall fans at
Highbury
Highbury is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Islington.
Highbury Manor
Highbury was once owned by Ranulf, brother of Ilger, and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads.
The manor hou ...
in 1988, PSG's ultras Boulogne Boys in Paris in 1994 before the Cup Winners Cup semi-final and with
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...
fans in
City Hall Square, Copenhagen
City Hall Square (, ) is a public square in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, located in front of the Copenhagen City Hall. Its large size, central location, and affiliation with the city hall makes it a popular venue for a variety of events ...
in 2000.
Millwall versus the mob
/ref>
References
{{Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal F.C.
British football hooligan firms
Gangs in London