Nick Love's Movie Bad Timing

Nick Love has admitted that the clash between West Ham and Millwall fans a few weeks ago was terrible timing for his latest movie The Firm.

The director's new movie, his first since Outlaw in 2007, looks at football violence within the domestic game. But the clash of fans has once again put the ugly side of football in the headlines.

In an interview with The Times the filmmaker said: "It's terrible timing, basically. I knew that I could get annihilated for revisiting the milieu of football violence, so I was careful to make a film that's got a good backbone and strong moral fibre.

"And then suddenly, at the finishing post, this thing comes along."

"The fact that some people are seeing it as a warm piece of work makes me feel warmer.

"I've felt like a villain for so long, and at times quite rightly so. But right now, I don't want to feel like a villain any more."

The Firm is released 18th September.