Football is known for its heated fanbase rivalry; whether that's Southend United v Chelmsford or West Ham United v Millwall FC. So, does this exist in the Non League divisions of English Football? Today we look at the so called Ricay Army.
The Billericay Army, are they as big as they seem?
"The Ricay Army"
The Billericay Army (most commonly known as 'Ricay' or 'Ricay Army') are a group of supporters from the Billericay Town FC fanbase who currently find themselves (as of writing) in 6th place at the Isthmian Premier League, whilst the fans of Billericay Town seem to be rather down to earth and a fairly generous fanbase; The Ricay Army are not.
When conversing with these group of, let's be honest, teenage boys- you'll come to learn that despite calling themselves a 'firm' they're no bigger than the younger school kids who call themselves the Canvey Ultra's (who we will look at later). These group of fans seem to be quite disrespectful and disingenuous when engaging and speaking to fans and hard-core supporters alike on the formerly known platform, Twitter, now known as X. For example, The Ricay Army have been gossiping and attempting to hype up a matchday fight with who they call the 'Chatham Yoof' for round about a few weeks time now, deeming the event to be a 'Propa clobber' as posted onto their Snapchat before then being put onto X. Eventually when the day came, this so called 'Huge Firm' was apparently denied entry.. no fight happened, nothing.
The fanbase's of the Non League on the other hand - found this quite amusing.
Conversations via Ricay Army's X account
As you can tell (as the rest of the other fans on the Non League) The Ricay Army is nothing more than a group of school children from Billericay Town trying to create extremely forced rivalries with the likes of Canvey Island, Hornchurch, Concord Rangers and more.
So? What's to learn from all of this?
There is no real firms, there's no real rivalries aside from local teams and petty arguments between fans each season. Whilst it's admirable to see a group of young fans come together for their team- its more embarrassing to have said young fans threaten people on Twitter and stalk through their social media's to make fun of their children, love life, work and so fourth.
Frankly? It's embarrassing.
We should be embracing our local Grassroots football and get behind our football teams; not creating so called firms that go out of there way to stalk, harass and constantly bother people on a daily basis. That is the oppidite of what football and the sport we love is all about. Be better, Billericay Army. To those other fans (The Hornchurch supporters, The Canvey Island Fans, The Chatham Men) and the rest of the other teams found in the Isthmian Premier.
Thank you for being incredible this season, here's to hoping other so called 'firms' stop ruining our local grass roots football.
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