Product Description

Many of the most shocking incidents in British football history have involved the hooligan followers of one club: Leeds United. For 40 years they have run riot across the country, punching their way to international notoriety - yet they have remained the most secretive of all mobs. Journalist Caroline Gall spent two years interviewing participants from several generations to piece together the first ever history of the gangs, from the Shipley Skins to the youths of the present day. Service Crew is the definitive story of football's most vilified fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14275 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Yorkshire Post
A new book chronicling the exploits of one of the most infamous hooligan gangs of them all.

DAILY SPORT
'Explosive, violent and unmissable.'

About the Author
Caroline Gall is a journalist for BBC Online and has written for numerous newspapers and magazines. She is the author of Zulus: The Story of the Zulu Warriors Football Firm.

Customer Reviews

Worst book on football hooliganism I have ever read
This book is very poor indeed. As other reviewers have said it skips wildly from one era to another. I have read countless books on football violence but this is easily the dullest and most disjointed. I thought a serious account of one of the country's most notorious football firms would be told but instead the book is a thousand snippets of confrontations that bare little relation to one another save the fact that football violence is involved. The development of the gangs is barely touched upon.

Instead of trying to piece together the actual story of the gangs all it contains is a simple mish mash of accounts of fights without any apparent flow whatsoever. One Leeds fans description of an incident is followed by another's account of some other fight at an unrelated match, and so on and on and on.

The modern era is narrowed down to a few chapters and one of the most notorious occasions (in Istanbul in the UEFA Cup a few years ago where Leeds fans were ambushed and murdered) is inexplicably limited to roughly half a page. Instead more of the football club's on pitch performances and boardroom errors are highlighted.

Seriously - avoid this book. It's appalling! I hate to think what the Leeds firm members who contributed to this must think.

Finally...the Leeds story is told....
I have just finished reading the Service Crew book and, as someone who saw a lot of it going on in the late 80's and early 90's, can say that as much as some of sounds a bit, "we did them....and then we did them...", the truth is that it is pretty much how it happened.

It also acknowledges the fact that whilst Leeds had the Service Crew, there were always other smaller mobs of Leeds off to one side doing "their bit" as well.

The book describes how Leeds had a massive firm who did the business at home and away, but I like the fact that it sometimes gives the view from opposing fans, as what one firm sees in one place isn't always what the other firm saw. It also doesn't shirk on describing the odd time our firm came off second best.

It seems funny now to see the lads carrying on in big flares and looking like the Bay City Rollers, especially as someone who grew up with the townies and dressers, where designer clothes were the norm, but this book deals with it all the way from the Shipley Skins right up to the present day.

It differs from a number of books on this subject in that it is written by an author who has researched the information, rather than being the "memoirs" of one particular lad, although there is loads of input from various sources within the Service Crew, and later on the VYT and IHS.

All-in-all a good read, and one which lads who enjoy reading about this subject will enjoy. It will obviously sell well in Leeds, where bookshops have sold out already, even at 17 quid a pop, which is a bit steep.

The last word is that it is about time the Leeds story was told. There are so many other firms out there who have told their story, and I am pleased the Leeds firm have finally broken their silence and put pen to paper.

best by amile
This is by far the best hoolie book released for a long time and believe me Ive read them all.The book covers everything from the late sixties to the present day .Lads from all the different eras have been interviewed and the book should appeal to anyone who moved in those circles over the last forty years.Excellent accounts of days out at Anfield,Old Trafford, and White Hart Lane as well as riotous weekends in Blackpool.Also chronicles the local rivalries with Bradford and Huddersfield as well as the infamous battles with Chelsea and West Ham.Fair enough theres not a great deal about Istanbul but as the book explains that was a fairly recent incident and the scars still run deep for many, myself included who were in Taksim Square that night.All in all a very good read and a credit to the author and all those involved.