Inside the rise of the ultras: Highly- trained in combat and fuelled by cocaine mixed with alcohol - while social media videos fuel their brutal violence. The new breed of football hooligan threatening Euro 2024

In football, like politics, a week can be a long time. ‘Me realising I am going to Milan on Sunday,’ read the caption on a photo posted by grinning Newcastle United supporter Eddie McKay as he raised a bottle of beer to the camera.

Fast-forward seven days and in his next Facebook update, the 58-year-old told how he was in hospital — having been stabbed three times with a machete in the Italian city.

‘Me, my son and a friend were attacked going to our hotel,’ he wrote. ‘It was an unprovoked attack.