By the word " hard men " I mean football hooligans , bouncers , security guards , and so forth .

At any rate I'm sure everyone here knows that many members of the British underworld had backgrounds as hooligans , bouncers , and other hard man types . I've also read that it was fairly common for OC groups in 1990s Eastern Europe to use security companies as fronts to run protection rackets and similar activities .

How much of this applies to the OC scene of present day Europe ? Have security companies become more respectable in ( say ) the EU 8 area of Eastern Europe or are many of them still mob connected ? Are there still strong links between hard man types and present day British OC groups ?