Sunday, June 25, 2006

Watching football in an ICF pub?

This afternoon I went to watch the England in the Canning Town area of East London. I won't bother with naming the pub but as you can imagine - given the area - it was West Ham through and through. This I expected as I went with a West Ham fan. The beer flowed and we ate good food. When it was time to go to the loo (for the first time) I wasn't surprised to find football graffiti on the wall.

The common theme of the graffiti was along the lines of "ICF - Come on England 2006". For non-football knwoing readers, the ICF is the Inter-City Firm, West Ham's infamous hooligan organisation. Now to be honest I didn't find such graffiti surprising, go to a toilet in a Bermondsey or Peckham pub and you'll find the equivalent sort of thing in relation to Millwall. However, what was interesting was when we left.


As we walked away from the pub the van above was filming the pub from a distance. Now, aside from the amusment that the company is called "Kovert Security" and they weren't exactly hiding themselves, it's fair to assume the graffiti was probably more than just the random biro fun of a drunk bloke. Having said this, a five year old was wielding a large metal pipe and chasing one of his peers in the beer garden whilst his parents watched the game. When I told the lad to stop it by shouting "OI!" one of the other little five years old said "don't listen to what he say's mate, he's no one". Ahhh inner-city toddlers, don't you just lov'em?

7 comments:

Croydonian said...

I'm an armchair West Ham fan (not my fault - it is a family thing..) and also sniff around the various WHU fora etc, and I was under the impression that all the ICF bods had retired. Wouldn't surprise me if it was just some kid with a pen, or one of the retirees on a nostalgia trip.

I'm amazed the five year old didn't give you an earful of anglo-saxon, frankly...

dizzy said...

you're probably right, odd that the pub was being filmed though.

Croydonian said...

Not one you'd go in if you were wearing Millwall colours, eh?

dizzy said...

Quite.

Unless of course your were a loony, which pretty much covers the entire East and West stand of the New Den (and probably the other two stands too (expect for my father-in-law)).

Iain Dale said...

I would like to categorically deny that I was the West Ham fan referred to above. I am a member of the Virgin West coast Firm...

Croydonian said...

Not that I condone such violence in any way, google 'ferry ICF West Ham'. It is the stuff of legend among the hooligan element.

And glad to hear that Iain has not been keeping bad company....

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