“What is a Football Casual? Are they a breed of meathead hooligans looking for any excuse to have a ruck? Are they a bunch of skinheads in bomber jackets and Doc Martens who have affiliations with right-wing political militant groups? Are they chav kids intent on causing public disorder? Whatever your perception is or however you want to label them – I guarantee most of you will be wrong.

Being a Football Casual was and is in it’s simplest form, about one-upmanship. The term casual is one that tends to stick the most, but there were also ‘Perry’s’ from Manchester and ‘Scallies’ from Liverpool and numerous more other regional names for a similar type of football fan.

The Football Casual subculture wasn’t about being politically led. Many casuals within the same crews had varying left-wing, right-wing and liberal political views. Neither was it was driven by one type of musical style. There’s a wide spectrum of musical styles that many Football Casuals enjoy. Varying from original mod, revivalist mod, ska, dub, indie rock, rave, nu-rave, madchester, punk, post-punk , oi and even more. Football Casual culture had the allure to many of these other musical followers to cross-over to the casual side – and many of them did. Was it a fashion thing? Almost certainly – but not at first. It was a general look thing, which then transformed into a label slave thing. Was it a violence thing? Yes, but it was more of a byproduct of the one-upmanship – a necessity to show that your crew were number one both in the fashion and violence stakes. Violence and fashion were the key battlefields – but under the banner of the team of which you supported.

The need for a country like Britain to have a youth culture which is either led by teenage angst, political anarchy or musical revolution has always been evident. Most recently, ever since the 60’s when the mods took on the rockers – these type of tribal clashes of various youth cultures have dominated our shores. I cite the mods in particular, as I believe that many of the fashion principles of mod culture (clean lines, minimal styling) also lie at the heart of the Football Casual subculture. Obviously there also some musical links, but that’s where it ends really. The whole art and jazz thing (the original modernists) are certainly things which don’t translate in Football Casual culture. Every movement needs a vehicle and with mods it was music, scooters and fashion. It just so happens, that the Football Casual subculture originated from the football terraces and their vehicle was football, fighting and fashion. If you were a mod, it was arguably easier for you to move across – as brands such Fred Perry and (less so) Ben Sherman could translate.”

We live in an information age where virtually anything can be characterised in a nutshell and passed off as “knowledge”, whether it’s political, scientific or simply a history of the 80s casuals movement, that terrace trend that influenced street fashions to the present day. 80s casuals are now in their 40s and showing no sign of letting up on their dark fetish. It’s creeping into the media in ever greater quantity along with all the bios, biopics and documentaries about Joy Division, Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. These days people know it all. They can tell you the exact day the Hacienda opened and closed ‘cos they’ve read it on Wikipedia or heard it on a late-night discussion between television hipsters. Experts, they truly are.But beyond the pedestrian mode of the casual Casual, there are the professional Casuals – a whole other kettle of dogfish. There’s blokes in Leicester and Carlisle who can rhyme off every major “label” worn by football casual hooligans from 1979 to 2009. They’ll describe in intricate detail the colour of the boxes the latest re-issued Adidas trainers come in, and why (Chinese or not, etc). 80s casuals are still admired in ways the lads of the mid-70s certainly aren’t. But shouldn’t they know better, these 40-odd-going-on-16 designer fetishists? They cram onto internet message boards to compare notes on the finer points of lace-dyeing, edge-piping repair (as in the piping on a vintage hiking jacket; these lads aren’t discussing plumbing) and reissues of various Adidas classics in new and scandalous colourways. It can be quite serious; “Korsika” from Bradford once deregistered himself and flounced off in a massive huff after “Estaban” from Barnsley commented that, based on the photo evidence, his new cord shoes were “fucking shit” (he deregistered after a few months and is now firmly in the grip of his addiction, you’ll be pleased to learn). These men spend a worryingly large fraction of their lives sitting at computers debating the finer points of Barbour wax jackets and vintage Patrick cagoules. Best of all are the debates which begin with a post entitled, “Are these snide or wott?” followed by a vigorous rally of observations and arguments centred on a pic taken from eBay; whenever a forum member plans to purchase a coat, t-shirt, or sweater that looks moody it must be first subjected to the intense scrutiny of all concerned before Paypal are brought into the picture. The things these chaps notice would put a forensic scientist to shame; the wrong tone of blue used in a stitched font on the inside label of a polo shirt, the width of a tiny stripe around a collar, or the stitch pattern on the breast pocket of a Lacoste jacket, salvaged from 1980 and placed for auction on the internet behemoth. eBay features heavily in the designer fetish equation and its reach knows no bounds when combined with the heroic favour system inherent on these forums; an 80s casual living on a remote farm in Saskatchewan can access eBay’s inventory and have gear delivered in good time, thanks to other lads accepting packages before posting them on to further legs of their journey.