‘I used to be West Ham thug who had 1,000-man brawls – however now I’ve one massive remorse’

A former boss of one of West Ham‘s most feared hooligan crews has opened up on his days of orchestrating football fights and he insists he has next to no regrets—except when it came to scaring families.

Carlton Leach, once the chief of the “Inter-City Firm” renowned for clashing with opposing fans at away games, had a chat with the Daily Express’s On The Edge podcast about his past as a hardcore football ruffian.

He admits that while the game was initially the allure, the thrill of the fight soon took over, confessing that he sometimes got so embroiled in fisticuffs outside the stadium that he’d miss the entire match. Carlton recalls how on away days, scores of them would break from the pack, intent solely on brawling.

He acknowledges the downside too, wincing as he remembers the ordinary folks who got swept into the chaos, saying: “I do regret all the violence sometimes, but it’s what made me the person who I am today.”

And when confronted with the memory of horrified families in the stands, he admits remorse: “If I look at someone sitting there [at a match], the families with their kids and they’ve been frightened… I was wrong but I wouldn’t change it because I loved every minute of it.”

He declared: “The governments were scared because it was getting more and more powerful and harder to control.”, reports the Mirror.

Elaborating on the fears, he said: “When you can get a hundred thousand, say, on the streets for a cup final and you got 100,000 fans or whatever and if you have that many men – fighting men – that’s scary for them. Because that’s an army.”

But today, there’s no bad blood left with his former rivals: “We’re all friends now,” he noted. Carlton, who makes regular trips across the nation for his book and film ventures, shared: “All our crowd, our audience is mainly football fans.”

And when it comes to mingling with the top lads from across the country: “Whoever I meet shake each other’s hands we hug each other and we talk about the old days… we talk like the old war veterans, sitting there talking about the war.”