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 ?

Here in Serbia,organized crime in capital is controlled by football hooligas,some of them do work as bouncers,security guards etc.They do have strong links to police and organized crime networks from Montenegro and Albania.Top people are also working as football managers.

Here there a suspected ties between notorious motorcycle clubs such as Hells Angels, No Surrender and Satudarah and the hardcore supporter clubs in professional football. But hard evidence that the clubs have been infiltrated by the bikers are not there.

Lot of British criminals have security companies as it's basically legalised protection rackets. People know they need to use a certain company for their doormen at their pubs or clubs or security guards at their building sites etc.

In Russia it's unbelievable players are beaten to a pulp and sign everything.

In Germany we observe a close connection between security companies and OC groups. Easy speaking sometimes they are the same.

So Hooligans or famouse Skinheads, young Thugs start as bouncer. They are Muscle. Cologne is famouse for his Bouncer gangs. Necati Arabaci aka Neco (now Hells Angels Turkey) start as bouncer and Pimp.
In early 00 there was big clash between different groups. One of them was Neco guys.

Have any new licensing laws been passed recently that make it difficult for people with criminal records and/or suspected links to organized crime to start up security companies and/or obtain employment at said companies ? Is there talk of any such laws in the works ?

Also is the amount of hard men in organized crime circles larger in countries where using firearms to settle underworld disputes isn't as popular ? In other words are musclemen more likely to be involved in OC in countries where guns aren't really used in such circles ?

Thanks for the answers by the way .