Cass Pennant

Carol "Cass" Pennant (born 3 March 1958), is an English writer and former football hooligan.

Background Pennant's mother emigrated from Jamaica while pregnant and he was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire. When he was six weeks old, Pennant was abandoned and placed into a Dr. Barnardo's Home. He was soon fostered by an elderly white family in Slade Green, south-east London, where he was the only black person. Pennant says he was "bullied from day one" year after year, and beaten persistently – "Not just from rivals or other kids, the whole town. Imagine as a kid, you're picked out; people in vehicles shouting out at you, total strangers".

Pennant was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in 1987 as part of Operation Fulltime. The aim of this police operation was to bring West Ham's football hooligans to justice.

After a second time in prison he started running a night club security firm in London. While working at one such nightclub in South London he was shot three times. He has been a consultant on television programmes such as The Real Football Factories and The Real Football Factories International.

In 2006, he had a documentary made about him, Cass Pennant – Enough Said (Gangster Videos) directed by Liam Galvin, and in 2008 a film was made based on Pennant's life story, Cass, starring Nonso Anozie as Pennant, and directed by Jon S. Baird. He also wrote the foreword for Manchester United football hooligan Colin Blaney's book Undesirables and contributed a short piece about Manchester United's rivalry with West Ham.