THE RED ARMY
The Red army was the name given to Manchester United away support during the 1970s. Most notoriously in 1974–75 when United had been relegated from the top flight of English football and played one season in the Second Division and the Red Army caused mayhem at grounds up and down the country visiting stadiums where they would at times outnumber the home support. This together with a Bolton Wanderers fan stabbing a young Blackpool fan to death behind the Spion Kop at Bloomfield Road in Blackpool during a Second Division match on 24 August 1974, led to the introduction of crowd segregation and fencing at football grounds in England.
The Red Army were featured in the 1985 documentary 'Hooligan' which was based around West Ham United's trip to Old Trafford in the FA Cup Sixth round and shows the Red Army fighting with the Inter City Firm (ICF) around Manchester. They were also featured in The Real Football Factories docmentary series.
Tony O'Neill, a former member of the firm, has released two books about the firm, Red Army General in 2005 concentrating on the 1970s and early 1980s, and The Men in Black in 2006 which told the history from the mid-1980s until the present day. Their activities have declined since the late 1980s as football hooliganism in general has become a less prolific problem than it was for more than a decade before that.
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