Convicted football thug seen at rally in neo-Nazi T-shirt

A CONVICTED football thug who racially abused a player was pictured at a Britain First march wearing a T-shirt with widely recognised neo-Nazi branding.

- by PATRICK EDRICH

Ryan Ferguson has been convicted for breaching a football banning order on a number of occasions and has past convictions for racially aggravated public order offences.

Ferguson, from Netherton, attended Britain First's rally in Birmingham on Saturday, May 17, and was seen at the head of the march in the company of co-leaders Paul Golding and Ashlea Simon. But, in a picture provided to the ECHO by anti-fascist campaign group HOPE not hate, 25-year-old Ferguson is seen wearing a T-shirt with a Polish slogan and the numbers “88”.

The numbers 88 are traditionally seen as an abbreviation for the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler”. The letter H is eighth in the alphabet, so 88 becomes HH. The shorthand reference is accompanied on Ferguson's T-shirt by a phrase which translates to “your hatred strengthens our faith”.