The first groups of ‘ultras’, football supporters between the ages of 15 and 25 who clearly differed from the classic model of the adult football spectator, appeared in Italy around the end of the ’sixties and early ’seventies. Gathered in the cheaper sectors of stadiums, attracted by clubs through special reduced price subscription campaigns, the ultras immediately displayed a series of unique characteristics totally new to Italian football. These ranged from a marked sense of identification with their own particular “territory”, meaning a sector of terrace marked out by banners with the group’s name or symbol, to a paramilitary look taken from the one in vogue with a number of extremist political organizations of the time: parka, Dr. Martens boots, camouflage combat suits and jackets worn under scarves with the colors of their clubs.

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