{"id":37977,"date":"2021-01-19T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=37977"},"modified":"2022-09-25T16:09:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-25T14:09:27","slug":"soccer-factory-an-x-ray-of-hooliganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/soccer-factory-an-x-ray-of-hooliganism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abSoccer Factory\u00bb, an X-ray of hooliganism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday's books - Ivan Garcia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Soccer Factory<\/em>, English novelist John King explores the daily life of a gang of hooligans. A much-appreciated soccer outing that explores the hidden sides of British society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

At Au Diable Vauvert, an independent publishing house, we take great care with the cover, which is always very lively and flashy to attract customers. The author of these lines admits it, he's a good audience and curious. So when he received a book with the Stamford Bridge lion, FC Chelsea's emblem, on the cover, he raised his eyebrows. What is this strange UFO? Soccer Factory<\/em>, is the title of this book. The author? A certain John King. Unknown to the editor until now. A book to be read with interest or, at the very least, with a healthy dose of curiosity about the social phenomenon of hooliganism - somewhat overshadowed these days by the \u00abyellow vests\u00bb and the black blocs<\/em>. We're off to England to talk about fights, beer, sex and a lifestyle that's the antithesis of \u00abPeace and Love\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pints and soccer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tom Johnson - his full name doesn't come up until fairly late in the story - is a warehouse worker who breaks his back every week to earn his keep. But that's fine by him, because on weekends and other match days, Tom swaps his quiet clerical clothes for Chelsea emblems. To release the bad energy accumulated at work, the humiliations and their rage for life, Tom and his band of pals drink pints in the pub, attend the match, pick up chicks and hit the streets to castrate the \"bad guys\". supporters<\/em> of the opposing team.

Read also | London pubs and the ball of losers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom's gang includes Rod, a childhood friend and married hooligan who often cheats on his wife Mandy. There's also \u00abBlack Paul\u00bb, a \u00abChelsea Negro\u00bb who works on the building sites - well received in this milieu. a priori<\/em> racist - and hard-hitting; Mark, Tom's childhood friend who's a bit of a dick; Harris, a hooligan who plays bus driver to take Chelsea fans to a match in Newcastle... As the story unfolds, the reader follows their adventures and disappointments. We witness a dinner in an Indian restaurant where the team tries to pick up a group of girls, Tom's arrest and time in police custody, an epic fight in the streets of Millwall - after which Tom ends up in hospital...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You meet a guy for a game, and you only know him from a certain angle. Then they blend into everyday life. They don't go around with a sign around their neck, telling everyone that they're hooligans, or whatever. They've got their jobs, their love affairs, even if that doesn't mean they're saints. Soccer is just a meeting point, a way of channelling things. If soccer didn't exist, we'd find something else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Parallel to the story of Tom and his gang, the narrative follows other secondary characters to depict the little people of contemporary English society, such as Doreen, a pious woman who works in a Laundromat, or Vince Matthews, a supporter of the England team who makes a trip to Spain to support his team, or Mr. Farrell, a World War II veteran who lost his wife and believes she's still alive... All these characters are subtly connected to each other. We discover that Doreen is the mother of Steve, Mark's crazy cousin, that Mr. Farrell is the grandfather of Vince Matthews and so on.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

A corrosive portrait of England<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tom's account is written in the first person, so things are described from his point of view. A man who has found in violence and soccer an antidote to (over)living in a rotten society. Skeptical and cynical about English society, Tom hates politics and the media. Indeed, most of his hooligan actions have to be precisely orchestrated to avoid cameras and cops. Chapters about Tom and his gang are often titled according to the clubs Chelsea will be playing against (\u00abCoventry, at home\u00bb, \u00abWest Ham\u00bb, \u00abAt Millwall\u00bb...). On the other hand, chapters recounting the lives of other characters are titled with a certain irony, such as the chapter on Doreen, which is entitled \u00abSweet Jesus\u00bb, or the one recounting Vince's Hispanic journey, which is entitled \u00abThe Running of the Bulls\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess the older you get, the more cynical and disillusioned you become. England has changed a lot since I was a kid. [...] because, when I was a kid, there were always a few fights and things like that, and there were regular fights in the stadiums themselves, whereas now that everything is repressed and more and more people are glued to their TVs and video games, the only thing to do is to have money and do what's being done. To look good. At least, that's what they want us to believe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you wonder whether the writer isn't overdoing it, whether he isn't being vulgarly gratuitous, as when he describes the scene where the gang dine at the Indian restaurant, or when he delivers political and societal analyses - from the point of view of \u00abreal\u00bb workers and hooligans alike. A case in point is the meeting between Billy Bright (a.k.a. \u00abNumber 46\u00bb), an unemployed neo-Nazi, and Michelle Watson, a \u00abradical socialist raised in deepest Hampshire, but now living - and living well - in London\u00bb who despises him and would like to liberate black people from white oppression and thus help \u00aboverthrow the barriers of white capitalism and racist oppression\u00bb.

Read also | Jonathan Coe: \u00abIt's fascinating how anything can become political in no time\u00bb <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer reveals a fractured English society with little regard for the people who really contribute to the country's greatness. In the background, we always find the question of war, with various characters recounting anecdotes about a friend or relative who took part in such and such a conflict. Characters such as Michelle Watson or Chrissie, a wealthy bourgeoise who Tom flirts with, are rare and presented as a world apart, disconnected from the reality of working people, and even as people who despise the little people. The subject of the novel, then, is the forgotten. And the outsiders<\/em> English prosperity, in short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman had all the makings of a Trotskyite, with her glasses and pale complexion, her long, unkempt hair and nicotine-stained fingers; the kind of cellar-dweller who landed on her territory to do what they called positive discrimination, for the benefit of every conceivable minority. These people talked about workers without having the slightest idea of what it was like to be a worker. Well, maybe he was wrong, but he didn't think so.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To the joy of fighting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The great success of the novel is the meticulous description of the battle scenes between hooligans. The chase between the two gangs (Chelsea and Millwall) culminates in a major confrontation in a playground. The chase keeps the reader on the edge of his seat. Soccer Factory <\/em>was published - in its original version - in 1996, before arriving in France in 1998, then in 2004 by Editions de L'Olivier, and being reissued in 2020 by Au Diable Vauvert. Suffice it to say that the realities described in this novel are magnificently topical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n