The Football Factory is driven by its two main characters - late-twenties warehouseman Tommy Johnson and retired ex-soldier Bill Farrell. Tommy is angry at his situation in life and lives for his time with a gang of football hooligans. Bill, meanwhile, is a Second World War hero who helped liberate a concentration camp and married a survivor. Tommy and Bill have shared feelings, but express their views in different ways. Born at another time, they could have been the other. As the book unfolds both come to their own crossroads and have important decisions to make.