The Zulu Warriors are a football hooligan firm associated with Birmingham City Football Club. Formed in the late 1980s, the name allegedly originated from a chant of “Zulu, Zulu” directed at Birmingham by Manchester City fans in 1982, due to Birmingham’s multicultural following. However, both the “Zulu” chant and the term “Zulu Warriors” were used in the context of a fan following, rather than as an organised gang, from at least the mid-1970s.
The Zulu Warriors have a diverse membership from different ethnic backgrounds, in stark contrast to most other hooligan firms that emerged around the same time, which were almost universally white and often included followers of far-right organisations such as the National Front. Their main rivals are the fans of fellow Birmingham club Aston Villa F.C., and there have been numerous violent clashes before, during, and after the Birmingham derby between the two clubs. The Zulus maintain that they are defending their city from invading firms.
In October 1987, police arrested 36 suspected Birmingham City hooligans during an undercover operation, uncovering knives, coshes, and diaries and photo albums boasting of violent attacks on police officers and supporters of rival clubs.
In May 1989, 20 Birmingham fans were arrested, and five police officers were injured when fans invaded the pitch during a match against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. It took seven mounted police officers to clear hundreds of Birmingham fans off the pitch. The referee took the players off the pitch for 26 minutes as baton-wielding police struggled to separate rival fans in one stand.
Following disturbances before and after a match in April 1999 between Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Zulu Warriors became the focus of a successful police operation, Operation Red Card. In February 2001, nine football fans were charged (seven with public order offences, one with drug possession, and one with criminal damage) after Birmingham City and Cardiff City fans clashed in Cardiff before the Worthington Cup final between Birmingham City and Liverpool on 24 February. Sixteen people were arrested as fights broke out in Cardiff, with one person assaulted and nine people taken to hospital with minor injuries. St. Mary’s Street in Cardiff city centre was closed for two hours, and the Philharmonic pub was smashed up as rival fans rioted. Three other nearby pubs were also forced to close. The local police raised concerns that Cardiff City hooligans would seek confrontations with the Zulu Warriors, and that the two firms had been using the Internet to arrange fights.
During the play-off semi-final at Millwall in May 2002, violence erupted after the game. Sergeant Russell Lamb of the Metropolitan Police Service, a veteran of the May Day and Poll Tax riots, described it as the worst violence he had ever experienced.
In October 2002, fifteen people were arrested in a series of dawn raids in connection with serious disorders committed in the Rocky Lane area of Aston before the game between Aston Villa and Birmingham City in September 2002.
Fourteen Birmingham hooligans received banning orders in 2006 following violent clashes on 27 March 2004 in North London. In February 2006, police were attacked as fighting broke out in Stoke-on-Trent after an FA Cup match between Stoke City and Birmingham City. The trouble at the Britannia Stadium started when a group of about 200 Birmingham fans tore down fencing separating them from Stoke fans. As fans left the ground, the police faced what a senior officer described as “extreme violence” from both Birmingham and Stoke fans.
In November 2006, the planned launch of the book “Villains,” which detailed various Aston Villa hooligan firms and their clashes with the Zulu Warriors, was cancelled due to threats from Zulu Warriors members. The event, scheduled to be held at Sensations Club in the Balsall Heath area of Birmingham, was called off because the Zulu Warriors were said to have taken exception to the book’s launch and the presence of rivals on what they considered “their territory.”
In September 2007, five Birmingham hooligans were jailed for up to eight months, and one was given a suspended sentence for their involvement in violence at a match where a steward lost the sight in one eye. The previous month, Birmingham City fans had started ripping up seats in the away end and throwing them, along with coins and a lump of concrete, during a match against Cardiff City at Ninian Park in Cardiff. One missile hit a steward in the face, causing him to lose the sight in his left eye. In a statement to the court, the steward said, “They paid no regard to the terrified men, women, and children around them.” Other stewards were also hit, and families with children fled the ground as the violence erupted. One Birmingham City fan was struck on the head with a £2 coin and commented, “The behaviour of our fans was appalling.”
The Zulu Warriors are known to clash particularly with supporters of Millwall, Stoke City, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City, and West Ham United.
Offshoot gangs such as the Brew Crew and the Junior Business Boys have emerged from the Zulu Warriors. They have been featured in the 2005 film Green Street, where a match between West Ham United F.C. and Birmingham City is depicted, culminating in a fight between the Zulu Warriors and the Green Street Elite (GSE), the fictional name for the Inter City Firm (ICF). The Zulu Warriors also had a minor role in the 1989 film The Firm and were featured in the documentary series The Real Football Factories on Bravo. Additionally, the Zulu Warriors are a significant part of the story in Steven Knight’s miniseries This Town, released in 2024, which portrays the Zulus as an already established gang in 1981 when the story begins.