So you’ve had a trying couple of months investigating the hooligan violence at the West Ham v Milwall Carling Cup match back in August. You’ve spent endless mind numbing hours looking at CCTV footage and the chief constable is really starting to breathe down your neck. What’s this, there’s some new footage on Sky News? “No Nigel, don’t bother turning up the sound, me ears are killing me . . .”
London Metropolitan police were forced to offer the public an apology a couple of weeks ago when it was revealed that included in photos of 66 people wanted for questioning in connection with violent clashes during the recent Cup tie were photos of actors. Said a police spokesperson: “Six images of individuals who were not involved in the violence were mistakenly included. These images appear to have been taken from a motion picture.”
The photos in question were actors in the recently released film The Firm, described as “a coming-of-age drama set in the early 1980s about a young man who joins a ‘firm’ of football hooligans.” It is, no doubt, another in a long line of truly horrible hooliganism-inspired films including The Green Street Runners and The Football Factory, even if it is based on a 1988 TV movie starring Gary Oldmam. The producers of the The Firm told The Sun, “We are delighted our scenes are so realistic people can’t tell the difference between them and real events.” The Guardian reported that sources at Scotland Yard described the error as “a bad day at the office”: those responsible had apparently not had the sound on when viewing the Sky News report. The Sun reported, “Enquiries are underway into how this occurred.”
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