The brutal combat sport that’s a big hit with the hooligans who terrorised Euro 2016

IT'S one of the world's most brutal combat sports and FIVE refs are needed just to stop the brawls getting totally out of hand.

Already banned in America, TFC (Team Fighting Championship) has been dubbed a 'football fight in a ring' and a 'bar room brawl without the bottles' by its own fans.

Five on one beatings are commonplace and the rules - and there are a few -  look like they may have been written on the back of a beer mat.

In fact, some of the battles would not have looked out of place on the streets of Marseilles where highly-trained Russian MMA thugs tore through their English hooligan rivals.

And those taking part do little to distance themselves from the football fighting firms of Europe with many of the teams taking part adopting the names of notorious hooligan gangs.

In recent tournaments teams named JungVolk (CSKA Moskva), the Prague Boys  (Sparta Prague FC), Wisemen (IFK Gotburg), the Pyscho Fans (Ruch Chorzow FC) , the Hooligans From Arka and the Lech Poznan Hooligans have all taken to the ring.

The fighters are lauded as heroes on hooligan websites and clips of the brawls and interviews with the organisers are shown on HooliganTV.com

Those that want to see the full bloody fights - filmed in a warehouse in Latvia - have to pay up.

But for those that love combat sports - and there are millions around the world - TFC really is the ultimate in 'last man standing' fighting.

Imagine a combat sport where ten men climb into a ring and keep fighting until only one of them is left standing.

The bouts consist of two teams of five and fighters can use virtually any manner of 'martial art' to dispatch their opponents.

A five-on-one beatdown—complete with face stomps and boots to the head—is a somewhat inevitable outcome of each match.

The collective weight of each team's five members must be 550 kilos, or around 1,212 pounds.

There is no time limit, and last man standing is the singular condition of victory.

Teams are permitted to bring up to ten fighters with them, which results in first string and second string positions, as well as an ample supply of substitutes should (when) someone gets injured.

The battle is held in an empty, audience-free 30,000-square foot arena, inside a 40-by-40 ring.

"It can get ugly fast once guys start dropping," said Jody Poff, head coach of the TFC'S USA Team.

"There is definitely a strategy to it," TFC Team USA fighter Sean Barnett says.

"When we are in there, we each have a specific job to do. We all know what has to be done. If you don't do it, you let your team down."

Guys stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their teammates and when the bell rings, they pair off and scrap one-on-one until something goes terribly wrong.

When someone taps or blacks out, the man who finished him is free to look around and help out anyone on his team.

They can - and often do - run over and kick a member of the opposing team in the head while the opponent is struggling to finish the fighter he initially engaged with.

Helping out a teammate could also look like sneaking up from behind to choke another man unconscious and whittle down that five-on-four ratio a bit more.

At the end of each TFC match is one poor unfortunate soul doing battle, sometimes against five others.

"The fights happen and they are over quickly," Barnett says.

"It's not a street fight. There is strategy. But once one guy goes down, everything changes fast."

But those that have seen the videos can be forgiven for thinking TFC is just a good excuse for a ten man tear up.

After all, it has been described by James Jefferson, president of Global Proving Grounds (GPG), the company that partially owns TFC, as, "more or less a bar room brawl without the bottles".

But that hasn't put the world's tough guys off.

In an interview last year, the organisers claimed they had more than 30 teams - including some from the UK - looking to take part in future events.

However, there are no TFC tournaments lined up for the immediate future as GPG is focusing on its  successful Gladiator fighter series which is focused on one-on-one brawls.