www.casspennant.com
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NORTHAMPTON CHRONICLE
& ECHO
14th September 2004
Ex-leader of football hooligan
gang
speaks out after MP was
branded thug
FORMER
GANG BOSS SAYS
HE NEVER MET TOWN'S
MP
|
The former leader of west Ham's notorious hooligan gang has denied any knowledge of Northampton South MP Tony Clarke's alleged involvement in football violence. Cass Pennant, who together with hundreds of violent yobs brought terror to the terraces throughout the 1970s as the infamous Inter City Firm (ICF), said he was not aware of ever meeting the Labour MP. Pictures of Mr Clarke sporting an ICF tattoo appeared in the News of the World on Sunday, sparking claims the burly politician had hidden a secret past of organised football fighting. Mr Pennant, who is now a best-selling author, said: "the ICF was a very close-knit community. Unless you were an East End boy you were an outsider, but the way football was back then all fans were tarred with the same brush. "All away fans would be classed as louts, an ICF chant would go up behind the goal and all of a sudden the whole away following was deemed ICF. "It would have been easy for people to latch onto that and say they were part of the scene, but there was never anything like formal membership. |
"It's impossible to say for definite if Tony Clarke was ICF. I don't remember him, but if he went to football then he should be congratulated. "He is a man of the people and is in touch with the common man. He knows what it's all about. "Like me, he has turned his life around and he should be congratulated for that. He may have had a past, but who hasn't? It is how we come out of that for the better that matters." Cass Pennant is regarded as a legend among modern-day hooligan groups, with his accounts of bloody terrace battles topping the best-seller lists. The ICF was among the most active gangs in the hooligan heyday of the 1970s, getting its name as members always used to travel to away games by train. Several members of the gang carried knives and a series of calling cards reading "Congratulations, you have just met the ICF" were printed to be left with victims. |
Speaking to the Chronicle & Echo from a two-day conference in Ireland, Mr Clarke admitted he had been involved in a number of brawls during his youth but said he was never involved in hardcore hooliganism. He said: "Like any other lad who went to football back then I witnessed hooliganism. I got involved in a few scuffles in my time, both at football and way from football, but to say I was a hooligan is stretching things a bit. "I used to go and watch the football, chant for my team and if it all kicked off around me my normal reaction was to get as far away from the trouble as possible. But at that time it was impossible not to get involved at some level. "I like to think that my experience as a lad has helped shape and mould me into the community minded activist that I am today." |
