From "The Irish News" (Global Edition), 12th Jan. 1998
Fears rise as soccer matches embroiled in sectarian scandals
Combat 18 neo-nazis make appearance at
Windsor
By Colin O'Carroll
THE sinister neo-nazi group Combat 18 made an appearance on the terraces
of
Windsor Park in Belfast at the weekend.
The racist and fascist group - originally English-based - has as one of
its main
activities been attending football matches to provoke confrontation
between rival fans.
Members of Combat 18 have been known to organise and travel
internationally to
incite trouble and known members of the group are shadowed by police
whenever they
travel to games.
Combat 18 union flags with their sinister swastika-style central symbols
were draped
over the front of the stands at Windsor Park during the match between
Cliftonville and
Linfield match, clearly visible to visiting fans and photographers.
FASCIST FLAGS... Combat 18 flags draped
over the South
Stand at Windsor Park during
Saturday's Linfield- Cliftonville Irish league game
Despite the mindlessness of the group's politics, it is highly organised
and police have
great difficulty in acting against its members, who may often on the
surface lead
'normal' lives.
Many have been shown to be high-earning high achievers and there is
also a large
crossover between the group and other right-wing organisations such as
the National
Front, skinhead gangs and other football "crews".
The group has been responsible for numerous acts of violence on the
terraces of
England and Europe and was involved in the 1995 riot at Lansdowne Road
in Dublin
at a match between England and the Republic.
The Republic had just gone one goal up in the match when thugs in the
top of a stand
started ripping up the seats and pelting Irish fans and officials below
with many
people being badly hurt.
The match was abandoned amid some of the most violent scenes ever seen
at a
sporting fixture in Ireland.
Gardai later said that racist neo-nazi agitators were largely behind the
violence. Later,
there was criticism of the Garda when it emerged that police in England,
aware that
known thugs were travelling to the game, had warned of trouble.
There have in the past been links between the National Front and
loyalists in Northern
Ireland.
Sam McCrory, the UDA leader in the Maze who is serving 16 years for
conspiracy to
murder and who met Mo Mowlam last week, was pictured in the British
Independent
on Sunday yesterday with a "White Power" tattoo on his right hand.
The appearance of Combat 18 supporters on the terraces at Windsor
Park is a sinister
development and will further discourage genuine football fans from
attending Irish
League games.