Andy Nicholls

Andy Nicholls (born 1962), is a Welsh former football hooligan, manager, and author of a number of books on football hooliganism. He has been banned from every ground in England and Wales and has served time in prison for football related violence. Nicholls has said he "would change nothing" about his time as a football hooligan, including "pillaging and dismantling European cities, leaving horrified locals to rebuild in time for our next visit" and having "seen visiting fans at Goodison Park pleading not to be carved open after straying too far from the safety of their numbers;" however, he is wary of violence coming to his own doorstep since he has had children.

Background When he was a boy he went to the Alun School in Flintshire. For over twenty years he was regularly involved with the violent followers of the club. and for his involvement in a pub fight between Everton and Aston Villa fans, in which he claimed he was only helping injured victims to escape. He had been summoned to Liverpool Magistrates Court under the Football Disorder Act over the publication of the book, and banned for two years, with £500 costs. Nicholls' ban from Everton means he has to stay a minimum of 10 miles from any match they play home or away. As part of his banning order he also had to sign in at a police station on match days, and hand in his passport every time a British team played abroad. His banning order expired in 2005.

Nicholls' first book, Scally: Confessions of a Category C Football Hooligan dealt with the victim knife attacks perpetrated by the County Road Cutters firm, who are associated with Everton. He chronicles the bitter Manchester-Merseyside battles that left hundreds injured. He also confronts the alleged problems of racism at Goodison Park and he describes rivalries with the gangs of Aberdeen, Chelsea, Millwall, Middlesbrough and other clubs. He has also co-authored three other books with fellow former football hooligan, Cass Pennant.