IN the run up to the 1990 World Cup all eyes were on the England team – not because of the players, but the thugs that followed them.
The Italia ’90 tournament ended a decade that saw football violence in the UK reach epic heights with warring fan groups – known as firms – leaving English supporters with a tarnished reputation that was feared around the world.
As an undercover cop who infiltrated the London firm the Millwall Bushwackers in a doomed reconnaissance mission ahead of the tournament, James Bannon was in the thick of the action.
Now the former Met officer – who appears in the Channel 4 documentary Italia ’90: Saving English Football – tells The Sun how he gained the trust of Millwall hooligans and found himself in the midst of terrifying violence.
“There were clubs that had reputations and you knew you were going to go there and meet opposing supporters that would want to have a fight,” he says.