KISPEST2009-2010
KISPEST2009-2010
Toulouse2009-2010
Toulouse2009-2010
Hamburger SV2009-2010
PANATHINAIKOS FC2008-2009
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TEAM:Club Bolivar-Bolivia
TEAM:Club Africain-Tunisie
TEAM:Anorthosis Famagusta
TEAM:Basel
TEAM:Rapid Wien
At the end of the 70’s, when the concept of “ultras” began to spread, the image of supporters radically changed. New resources and ways of encouraging the team – less known in that period – emerged on the stadiums.
In contrast to the other spectators, the first groups of the Italian ultras used to stand up at the games they attended and permanently sustained their team during 90 minutes by strong shoutings, rhythmical hand claps and also by using the drums.
Firenze 1975
Pisa ‘88/’89
They frequently used flags and banners and if the situation required, they were ready to be aggressive against the rival ultras fans.
Firenze ‘76/’77
Visually, the stands clearly changed, becoming scenes of original choreographies that in course of time rivaled with the matches. Thus began the era of choreographies. The ultras choreographies before the 70’s were inspired by some regional-popular Italian traditions. For instance, the Naples habitants were famous by showing their joy on winter celebrations by using strong firecrackers and thus creating an incendiary, sometimes dangerous, atmosphere. This pyrotechnical usage gradually extended by introducing some of these materials on the stadiums and coloured smoke bombs as a means of saluting the team when it entered the pitch.
Atalanta ‘79
Another practice used by the ultras was to encourage their team by using images that showed the death of the rival team, wooden crosses and even “coffins” covered by the rivals` flags.
Sampdoria ‘79
At the same time, wood was used for making huge coloured messages, not only for encouraging the team but also for writing bad words to the rival ultras.
Lazio ‘78/’79
As an inspiring source they also used the English style, rising their scarves in the same time, thus creating the visual effect of the water waves. This specific style introduced by the British became an important element of the ultras choreographies and eventually turned out to characterize the “ultras phenomenon”.
Bologna at Cesena ‘84-’85
In order to stop the harsh incidents from the late 70s that ended with the death of the Lazio fan Vincenzo Paparelli, the police prohibited the ultras entering to the stadiums with various blunt objects. Even if those rules were not fully respected, they represented an impediment for making the choreographies. The ultras fans had to bring some “innovations” in the area for making choreographies better.
This period until second half of the 80’s, the ultras phenomenon reached the lower divisions also, so that each team (from Serie A to Serie C/2) had one or even more organized fans groups. The rivalry and competition spirit between the stands were expressed especially through the original choreographies and a good, prepared choreography having a big impact was a reason of force and pride for the makers.
It is no surprise that the most impressive choreographies can be seen especially at derbies.
Lazio in ‘84/’85 derby
These choreographies that, from the point of view of the ultras, represent the main attractions of the matches and normally shouldn’t lack, are costly and often take a lot of time for their making. In order to pass through these inherent difficulties, the ultras use the autoproduction and selling of materials with the signs of the group they belong to.
In order to make choreographies better and better, some other materials were used. For example, the balloons in the colours of the team used by thousands in the stands. There were also used big rolls of coloured paper going from the lower part of the stand to the upper one to cover the respective zone of the stand, rolled paper thrown on the pitch, coloured cardboards giving particular chromatic effects, etc.
TORINO-Fiorentina ‘81/’82
BARI-Lecce ‘84/’85
Rolls of paper covering the court
Fortitudo Bologna
Coloured cardboards making special chromatic effects
Cesena-ROMA’89/’90
The ultras groups renewed their flags and banners and then the “immense” flags appeared, created to cover a sector or even the whole stand. The first who used it were the ultras of Sampdoria and Torino, in the championship edition 1982/83.
SAMPDORIA-Roma ‘83/’84
TORINO-Genoa ‘83/’84
Due to the success it had, most of the Italian stands took over this idea.
TARANTO-Siena ‘85/’86
PISA-Bologna ‘89/’90
At the beginning of the 90s, those big flags served for more impressive choreographies, that became true “masterworks”.
Ravenna ‘98
Choreographies became greater and greater.
The next are some other good examples:
Genoa - Sampdoria (1992/93): 2 enormous cloths (one red, the other blue), used as “drop curtain” are put on some steel cables and moved through the blocks. Firstly, the curtain are pulled “hiding” the whole stand and in front of it some messages preceding the coreography are shown. In the beginning, a big traffic indicator (Road works) is shown and then appear these messages one after another: “Sorry for the trouble, we`re working for you”, “Some patience and you`ll see”, “We`re almost ready”, “Just a bit and…”, “And now is the moment”.
The properly show began when opening the curtain: the second “level” of the stand was used as background, being covered by white slates held by fans, while in the first “level” is shown a “sea” whose waves are made-up by horizontal red and blue paper stripes; in the middle there is a “craft” and on the right side the “light tower”, the symbol of the harbour town Genoa.
The final message could be put like this: “Like our ancestors ruled the sea, we’re ruling the stadiums”.
Milan-Brescia (1993/94): Celebration of winning the championship. While AC Milan team enters the pitch, the first level of the stand is covered by a huge cloth having at its edges the drawing of the symbols of the groups that made the choreography and in the centre is the Milan team drawn like in a caricature. In the upper levels, thousands of people divided on 3 sectors are showing up various coloured boards creating the Italian flag. After some minutes the choreography was changed, apart from the first and third level of the stands, and thus the message “Champions” appeared in place of the national flag.
It has to be mentioned that in the last years the pancart has became a central element for the choreographies, continuing the ironical messages, caricatures, symbols, etc.
Anyway, the beautiful choreographies didn’t lack, for example the creativity of the Salerno fans in the success year in Serie B and in next season in Serie A, proven by images
or the choreography of the Bologna fans to celebrate their club’s 90 anniversary.
Poetry and irony are shown all together in two choreographies for basketball game realized by the ultras of Varese and Fortitudo Bologna…
Other examples proving the ultras` inventivity geographically and more, can easily be found and, as long as their imagination has no limits, we can be sure that from this point of view everything will be all right…
Fans clashed on the pitch after the game, which ended 1-1, and incidents before the match saw a reported five fans - four Belgians and a Spaniard - arrested.
Anderlecht coach Ariel Jacobs played down the pitch invasion, attributing it to the “euphoria” following the result which gives the Belgian outfit the edge in their last-32 tie.
“I want to thank the Anderlecht fans who have covered so many kilometres to give their support to the team,” he said. “I think the invasion was due to a state of euphoria and it is regrettable.”
UEFA have yet to react but they are expected to come down hard after fining Austria Vienna 20,000 euros and ordering them to play two games behind closed doors - one suspended - following incidents in their match against Athletic in December.
More photos you can see here
Spangly Princess writes:
Today a national demonstration washeld in Rome with ultras from all over Italy attending. The march began at Piazza Esquilino, behind the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and went down via Cavour, along via dei Fori Imperiali past the Colosseum and through the Circus Maximus before culminating in Piazza Bocca della Verità, a really nice route and a bit of a change from the usual demonstration routes the authorities allocate.
The idea was to avoid localism and rivalries and instead to put on a show of unity. Club colours, banners & scarves were banned, instead all groups were invited to wear a plain white t-shirt bearing the message ‘No alla Tessera del Tifoso”. On the back they were free to put their city/club/group names, a way of showing to fellow demonstrators where they were from without disrupting the overall show of coherence. Some wore shirts with the official slogan ‘Se i ragazzi sono uniti non saranno mai sconfitti’, classily translated from the Sham 69 song ‘If the kids are united’. Juve had produced expensive looking white hoodies with their club crest and group name embroidered on the back and ‘No alla Tessera del Tifoso’ on the front. Flash cunts. They even had an embroidered arm logo on. Most people just had the plain tshirts, which the Irriducibili Lazio were selling (always out to make a profit, they are). We didn’t buy one.
Chants were many but not terribly varied since the repetoire of songs suitable for all is not that huge - most chants are for or against some team or another, after all. So mostly we sang against the police, the carabinieri, the tessera, Spaccarotella (the policeman who shot Gabriele Sandri) and Roberto Maroni (minister of the interior, promoter of the Tessera, alround slimeball). And in favour of the ultras movement, and justice for Gabriele, and for Stefano Cucchi killed in police custody last month. ‘Noi non siamo dei criminali’: why should the innocent majority suffer infringement of their civil liberties rather than the convicted?
One of Jakmania’s action in Indonesia Super League. We are from Jakarta, we are from Indonesia.
At a rally organized by students against the Italy’s Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, in Bologna, some ultras elements showed up to protest against the supporter’s card (tessera del tifoso).
During the protest some incidets occured, 2 policemen injured, 1 ultras arrested but for only a couple of minutes:
“From Jan. 1, soccer enthusiasts will only be able to follow their team away from home if they have the supporters’ card,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni announced at news conferences in past months.
The government has expressed a belief that this will go a long way in combating football related violence in Italy.
One of Hammarby’s top groups, Ultra Boys, celebrated 10 years of existance at the game against GAIS.
Here is a video from this game:
A presentation about this group from our site a couple of years ago:
After the summer in 1999 two passionate guys started painting a banner which would get consequences for the whole supporter scene in Sweden and its progress. The banner said “Bajen Ultra Boys” and was just the beginning of a never-ending stream of new green and white flags. In the beginning there was no thought behind writing “Bajen Ultra Boys” on the banner, it was more like a cool thing to write on flags and banners. After a while they also began to participate in making the choreographies at the games of Hammarby. After a while the banner was more than just a banner, but it had - both by the group itself and others - been known as the name of a group of Hammarby supporters. The group grew bigger and in the late year 2000 the group opened their first webpage.
2001 was an important year for Ultra Boys. In the early year they started to get a mentality and when the summer came the group Järfälla Ultraz was incorporated into Ultra Boys. The role models were the ultra’ groups in the south of Europe. Their choreographies, chants and flares impressed and inspired the group.
In the end of the football season 2001 Ultra Boys made their first scarf, a video film was made with the best from the gold year and during the bandy season they also made a hood and a T-shirt. In Christmas Eve itself they opened a new webpage that changed the way people looked at Ultra Boys. The group wanted a more serious look – clear criterion for membership was made and five leaders were chosen. In the semifinal against Västerås the group made the first advanced choreography ever in Swedish bandy.
The group’s influence among the supporters of Hammarby had now become big and they felt recognized and respected by other groups and respected supporters of Hammarby.
If 2001 was an important year for Ultra Boys, 2002 was something of a middle year for the group, but perhaps also an entrance in the tough reality a serious group must face. Already during the pre-season Ultra Boys got critics from the security of Hammarby when they said that the supporters could not use pyrotechnical effects during the pre-season. In the end of the football season Ultra Boys faced their first serious setback – Hammarby and the Swedish Football Federation decided that a skull was something negative and made up rules that said Ultra Boys and others could not use their symbol any more. The leaders of Ultra Boys now made clear that the group never again would be repressed or get their rights as supporters denied without active resistance.
NOW
Ultra Boys is per definition a self controlled and politically independent ultra group dedicated to Hammarby IF. The group consists of about 40 members and the number is constantly raising.
Organization
Ultra Boys has a committee consisting of five members who all have been a part of the group for a longer period of time. These five persons have no official obligations in the group – we do what we are good at. The committee decides every important issue for the group such as official statements, the producing of new materials, and friendships with other groups, creating choreographies and so on. If we can’t reach a clear decision we vote and let the majority of the leaders get their will through. To get a place among the leaders you must have been a member of the group for a long time and show a big, burning and active passion for the group.
All financial resources from our activity are being directed into the group and is being used for things that improve us as a group.
Finally we can say that the organization of the group isn’t and doesn’t need to be so organized, because we are still a quite small group.
Relationship to other groups of Hammarby
We have no perfect relationship to any of the other supporter/ultra’ groups of Hammarby. Our relations are though based on respect. We think that we all must, as far as possible, accept and respect our differences in mentality to be able to undisturbed give the best possible support to Hammarby. Discussions are good but pure fights between groups are not good for Hammarby or their supporters.
That Hammarby as several different groups of supporters is a good thing in our opinion. It means that we have an active, alive and aware scene of supporters, something that not many clubs in Sweden can brag about. A situation of competition is good for Hammarby when all groups are spurring each other to get better.
Mentality
The mentality of Ultra Boys is our own and difficult to describe, but it’s clear where we’ve got our inspiration from.
We are an ultra’ group and as every other ultra’ group we identify with the original ultras mentality in southern Europe. We have mixed and transformed this style to the conditions in Sweden and in that way made our own mentality.
We want to stand for a creative, active and fanatical support to Hammarby. Through constant singing, jumping, using of flags and so on we want to create a passionate atmosphere to bring Hammarby to new victories. We go to the games for one reason only; to support Hammarby (both as a team and as a club) visually and verbally.
The supporter culture and the support to your club are not only about supporting the team on the pitch, but also about prestige to other clubs and supporters. We want to make Hammarby the proudest club to represent. We want Hammarby to continue having the most aware and knowing supporters/supporter groups. Clear mentality, style and attitude is very important. Ultra Boys and the supporters of Hammarby shall never in the future be able to be laughed at or made fun of at any level.
Fight for the rights
Sweden is not an easy country for an ultra to live in. The repression ultras down in Southern Europe experience is nothing compared to what we experience here in Sweden. Here many of the natural rights for the supporters is heavily denied. We want all others supporters to be aware of the problems we are facing. Ultra Boys is always using verbal methods as the first way to solve a problem. In issues when that way does not work, direct action is necessary. No laws or rules is a problem for us to break, we only look at what is good for Hammarby and Ultra Boys.
BECOME A MEMBER
General policy of recruiting new members
Ultra Boys has a big interest in growing. Since we believe in our concept we also hope that many others do. That we are such a small group today is not due to the fact that we don’t want to grow, it’s because people don’t join us in bigger numbers. We get new members, but we are growing slowly…
As we said, we want to get new members, but this can’t happen at any cost. If we would just let anyone become a member of the group we would destroy what we have built up and become slower in the aim to reach our goals. We are scared of this development. Our basic thesis is that Ultra Boys should commit ourselves on quality in first place. The perfect thing would be if quality and quantity was matched together.
Criteria for membership
We have made certain criterion for membership that we want all new members to accept before we can let them into the group. We want you who consider membership to read trough this page carefully before you apply to membership:
* You must be over 16 years of age and male (females are welcome in Ultra Girls).
We believe there are people under the age of 16 that would make our group better, but we also think that we could not handle all the applies for membership from people under 16 if we did not have this rule.
*You can’t speak to anyone about our activity (such as working with choreographies…)
*You can’t be a member of another group. If you are a member in Ultra Boys, you must be active in our group. Our members are only our members.
*What the leaders say is law. You must respect the decisions taken by the persons who are the heart of the group.
*You show respect for the games and dress and act in a worthy and respectful way. You don’t wear materials from other supporter groups or clubs than Ultra Boys and Hammarby (expect the groups and clubs we have friendship with).
The committee has the right to kick members out of the group, if they don’t follow our criterion.
Here is an older interview we found on the net, with Fredrick, a member of Ultra Boys:
1.) “Hello into the land of the elks, furnishings retailers and long winters. Please introduce yourself and your involvement to the “Ultra Boys”.
The group started in 1999 as just a banner. A few guys wanted to make a banner to the derby against Djurgården and they choose the text “Bajen Ultra Boys” (Bajen being the nickname of Hammarby), and soon the “banner” became a group. The group was started really because we thought the other groups had lost their original mentality. Nowadays however, more groups have a quite good ultras mentality.
2.) First a general question. Long time ago i was in Göteborg once. All was very clean and there were many blond girls. Beside you always thinking on a very well known furniture store. Please tell us short about the life in your country and maybe you can take some clichés away?
I live just north of Stockholm which is quite unusual for a Hammarbysupporter. Hammarby territory is South Stockholm, and the southern suburbs. But my dad was a very active Hammarby supporter, and so was my grandfather. I really don’t know about the clichées, the blond girls are very nice 
3.) Now to the important stuff: how we have to imagine the “ultra life” in sweden? How is your relation to the teams and to the swedish football association? In some way like germany were the reprisals of the german football association tie your hands
We have a very difficult situation. I think it’s worse in Germany, but still, it is really bad. Our relation to Hammarby is really bad, because they use to lie to us, the stewards/guards at the stadium like to threat us like shit, people are banned from the stadiums for no reason… Sometimes they can say “we have you on video, you can’t deny” to a guy who hasn’t even been in the same sector… It’s really stupid. Recently however things have become a little better, the guards/stewards of Hammarby does not dare to go up on the sectors in the same way as before. They did a really bad thing last season, and they got a lot of shit from normal supporters about that. They went up on the terrace to take a guy. Why? Because he had a “doppelhalter”, and that was not allowed. The situation got worse and fighting started. The police came and started hitting people and spraying pepper-spray at everyone. Many people got ill from that treatment.. A lot of guys were banned after that, for no reason whatsoever. The guards/stewards should have been the ones that are banned. Pyro is illegal, and if you are caught you can be banned from up to three years. Also, they think “doppelhalters” is used to hide the faces on the ones that use pyro, so usually after using pyro… the next game doppelhalters are banned. It’s so stupid.
4.) I like to watch to the swedish scene, specially to the supporters of the teams from stockholm an göteborg. Even at the derbys you see very good intros and great support. Respect! How fans and ultras are organized?
We have a big “official” fanclub called Bajen Fans. They are quite good, because they are really on our side. Actually, all active supporters are on our side. On the internet you can read about people that think we destroy from Hammarby, but you never hear from them in real life… Why? Because they sit down and just want to watch the football…
5.) Please tell us about the situation in stockholm. Which team have fans in what social class if such an classification existed. Why you become an Hammarby Supporter and not Aik or Djugarden Fan?
Traditionally Hammarby is considered working-class because that Södermalm in the late 1800s and early 1900s was probably the poorest place in Sweden. It was heavily overpopulated, and people worked for almost no money in the harbors. Hammarby was actually started to prevent the youth from drinking, fighting and gambling… Djurgården however is considered as upper-class, because they come from Östermalm - the rich part of Stockholm. AIK is somewhere between, not really being from Stockholm but the town of Solna just north of Stockholm. Nowadays however, these are… clichées. But there are still some truth to it, and we sing songs about “rich Djurgården” and so…
6.) How is the situation at the Ultras? Who is in Stockholm on the top at organisation, member numbers and so on?
The ultras groups in Sweden are not really big. The hooligan groups (firms we call them) are much bigger. Hammarby has probably the biggest (and most active) firm in Sweden. We are somewhere between 40-50 members, and so are most other groups. But we are growing bigger for each year. We like quality more than quantity. All our members must be “good” and watch as many fights they possibly can, go to away-games, always sing and so.
7.) And how it looks at you “Ultra Boys”? Where and how you prepare your banners, flags….is there a cooperation with other groups like “Bajen Fans” or the “Bara Bajare”?
Bajen Fans has a headquarters where we usually paint our flags and banners. If we need to do like a big flag, we usually go to a… (what do you call it? Where you do gymnastics in school… Gym-hall?) Bajen Fans is really cooperative, and so are most groups. Usually we travel with their buses on away games, when we don’t have buses of our own. All groups nowadays get along very well, and we are quite united against Hammarbys attitude against their supporters.
8.) I can imagine there is an more or less important rivality between Göteborg and Stockholm. What are the diffenrences when you compare the ultras of that towns? Göteborg (specially IKF Göteborg) should have very violent supporters we heard here?
Yes, there is a great rivality between all Stockholm clubs and IFK Göteborg. This was long before the ultras movement started in Sweden. There is actually rivality between Stockholm and Göteborg even outside the world of football. IFK Göteborg has a few ultras groups, but I consider them worse than the groups of Stockholm teams - even though the rivality between AIK, Hammarby and Djurgården is… very big.
9.) How do you deal with the boys in blue? Recently i visited an game with very nervous cops. Is the police in sweden so aggressive aswell?
The police in Sweden can be very aggresive. I don’t think they are properly trained to deal with football supporters. I have followed Hammarby to places like Belgrad, and seen football games in different countries… Nowhere have they been as rude as in Sweden. Here they are rude and aggresive from the start, no matter who you are - or if you haven’t done anything. Another bad thing is that they almost everytime take the side of the stewards from Hammarby. They think that because they are official personal from Hammarby they can’t be wrong… But they are! One time when the stewards attacked everyone in our little sector, I talked/shouted to the police why they didn’t help us… but of course, they started hitting us and spraying pepperspray… Luckily the hooligans came to our help and chased away the police and stewards.
10.) Ok my friend, thanks for the great cooperation and i wish you only the best for the future!”
If it is something you don’t understand, or I wrote badly… Ask me and I’ll try to explain Also if you think my answers are not good enough, tell me and I’ll try to make better ones
Ultra Boys official site is: www.ultraboys.se
PODGORICA — A Serbian man shot and killed in Igalo, Montenegro, on Friday, was one of the leaders of a Red Star FC supporters’ group.
According to the media in Podgorica, the victim was identified as 27-year-old Marko Vesnić. His friend Ivan Marković, aka Ćili, was lightly injured.
Meanwhile, police in the coastal Montenegrin town of Herceg Novi are looking for cousins Duško and Vlado Roganović, who they suspect murdered Vesnić.
According to the same reports, the participants in the showdown had "unsolved issues" among them.
Vesnić was the leader of the Red Star fans, known as Delije, for years. He also worked as security for businessmen, company heads and sports clubs, said the media.
A day of rain and clouds and – for the record – Austria Salzburg won their last home game 3-0 against this season’s closest rivals, Grünau, in front of the expected full house of 2250 fans. For lovers of tautology that was the third consecutive promotion on the trot. Goals from Lubo Neubauer, Stefan Leitner and Xandi Seywald put the lid on a difficult and ultimately decisive season for the team and the supporters. After the first two seasons of thrashing hamlet teams and tractor boys, this year was the first time the side had really had to battle, and despite being up against it on a number of occasions, somehow – bar Bürmoos – there had always been a happy end. And that’s part of what Saturday was really all about.
At this point I have to remind the five people reading this abroad who aren’t familiar with the story just what this is all about; partly a question of sponsorship vs. ownership but above all a question of identity and pride. Three years ago Red Bull came in to buy a financially ailing Austria Salzburg, which at the time seemed OK; just that without asking the fans or taking the history of the club into consideration, the decision was taken to re-establish the club with a new name, Red Bull Salzburg, and to eradicate a long tradition of playing in purple and white in favour of introducing the corporate colours of the sticky drinks giant – red and white.
People who don’t go to football regularly and don’t sing the love songs devoted to their club on the terraces may not know that the name of the club appears in just about every song; the colours too. Add to that the fact that every collection of photos, memorabilia, videos, item of merchandise, old tickets, every sticker book, and every memory since you were old enough to understand what football is…appears in the colours of your club – and bears its name. Austria Salzburg play in purple and white. That is how an Austria Salzburg supporter sees the world.
Take that away and a whole complex construct of memories, nostalgia and social meaning is destroyed. Three years ago Austria Salzburg was refounded by fans and followers of Austria Salzburg who couldn’t bear the thought having a big chunk of their lives wiped out at the stroke of a pen. Three years later and three weeks ago Red Bull won the Austrian Bundesliga the same weekend the new/old Austria Salzburg won the Salzburg version of the Austrian fifth division.
One of Austria’s respectable daily papers, Der Standard , ran an article in the online version of the newspaper on Red Bull’s conquest of the Bundesliga and, somewhere in the nether regions of the webpages there was a story on Austria Salzburg’s fifth division championship and their fight back from the edge of oblivion. While the former struggled to attract 100 blog responses, the latter was inundated with over 500 contributions from all over Austria. As the Beatles once said ‘I don’t care that much for money, cos’ money can’t buy me love!’
The last game of the season and the subsequent promotion celebrations have already become a kind of ritual involving fan groups and sympathisers coming from far beyond the Austrian borders to share in the celebrations. Even if some of these faces couldn’t win a beauty contest in solitary confinement, they were still here and we were happy to see them.
The fact that the promotion party transcends the end in itself is reflected in the mood of the day. After a season of taking for granted the many services provided voluntarily, complaining at the inadequacies of the team, moaning about poor parking and catering at away pitches, bad signposting and poor facilities it’s a chance to enjoy the day and go with the flow.
And what a flow! Having got to the ground an hour before kick-off 3 beers in the first hour meant that I was already rocking and rolling midway through the first half. Fortunately everybody else was getting drunk too, so it was a win-win situation. The lads in front of me donated a surplus beer, although we’ve never talked before, so as a point of honour I bought them both one back. It was one of those afternoons when the match was exploited as an excuse to get together and have a good old sing-song and shout your head off. This is low-level psycho-hygiene at its best.
Just about everybody joined in every shout, every song and everybody was grinning at each other like silly horses. The crowd even got the Southern Italian lads from Barletta grinning, which is no mean feat. On 20 minutes the grinning got audible as Lubo banged in a free kick to make it 1-0 and demonstrate his value to the team. No clever chipped free kicks or tricks, or curling it round the wall – just bang into the top corner. Brilliant.
By half time a number of people had realised there were people wandering around at the bottom of the terraces with beer carriers and that there was also the possibility of getting beer at the beach bar on the tartan hard court, which as it was pissing it down looked as out of place as a poodle in a bear pit. The multiple access to beer had obvious consequences. As there was no problem getting hold of beer there was no need to savour it. Beer was no longer measured in units as everybody was sharing their beer with everybody else. Before anybody ran out somebody would come back with his or her hands full of beer and the drinking orgy continued.
Oh! The second half was 2 minutes old before I realised the players were on the pitch. At its best the singing and chanting uncouples itself from the game. The mood on the terraces was like a disco with the music turned off and the people still singing deliriously; the perfect timing for the second goal. Stefan Leitner has fought his way into the team this season and although he looks like George Best at the NASL end of his carrier, he’s like a mixture of a bull terrier and truffle swine and is not afraid to go in where it hurts to get the job done. On 60 minutes he buried a nod-on from Kopleder to shake the mood cocktail in the grandstand yet again. 2-0.
At all good parties when enough beer has been drunk the inhibitions dissolve into the spaces between your brain cells and the clothes start coming off, so someone had the bright idea of starting a 1-2-3 shirts off chant which inevitably ended in around 100 men baring all shapes and forms of untrained and unsightly torsos. There was more hair and fat on view than in a ton of pork scratchings. Yummy! Needles to say, at this point in time with enough space between my brain cells to build a row of houses, my hairy, naked upper body was as visible as the next.
On the continent there’s a tradition of organised chanting usually lead by fans with megaphones that spend the game with their backs to the action making sure the crowd are kept busy. On seeing the shirts come off up and down the stands our own Mr Cheerleader, Salva, knew what was coming. There was a concerted and protracted attempt by the entire grandstand to get Salva to join in the fun and pull off his top and it was the first time I have ever seen Salva at a loss for something to say as he began trying to gesticulate incommunicable messages like – ‘my shirt is glued on’, ‘in my family we have a rule that you don’t take off your shirt on Saturdays’, ‘shirt off – shirt off – shirt off’, but really not having drunk his weight in beer like the rest of us he was just shy and was fidgeting around like a dog with a wasp flying around his bum.
Anyway, on 72 minutes our own Harry Potter was again beneficiary of a tear in the time and space continuum. After a through pass from Mario Schleindl the whole of the game seemed to freeze frame for five seconds – and the only person able to move in this time was Xandi – I-don’t-believe-it he’s-frozen-the-time-space-continuum-again Seywald! Maybe everybody was waiting for an offside whistle, but it never came and with literally all the time in the world Mr Potter waved his little wand and the evil forces of Grünau were banned to languish in Landesliga 2 for forever and a day. 3-0 and a fitting rebuttal for a hapless team of pretenders to the throne from the richest town in Austria.
The final 18 minutes did nothing to suggest that the richest town in Austria had invested its riches in large amounts and as the ref blew up for full time the singing and chanting carried on as the Austria players came over to pay their dues. Several players knew they had just played or witnessed their last game for Austria and it was obvious that another chapter of a fantastic saga was coming to a close. Some have played a big role in the development of the team over the past two or three seasons such as Martin Ebner, Peter Weiss, Matthias Csenki, Michael Rehrl and Michi Geier. Others have been with the club right since its enforced rebirth such as Wolfgang Würnstl and Oliver Trappl. The fact that so many players are now leaving the club is tribute to the progress the team has made as a whole and I hope in twenty years they will still be greeted with the enthusiasm and gratitude they deserve.
Shame there was no tent for the award of the championship shield but I have to admit that, what with the wind, the rain, the pork scratchings and grinning horses, and the copious amounts of C2H5OH, the order of events from this point on became a little blurred and the fact of who was being awarded what became far less important than the fact that a team and a club that only existed in the hearts and minds of a few hundred people three years ago now boasts a several successful kids’ and youth teams, and a senior team ready to take the next step back towards involvement in nationwide football. Behind the scenes there are hundreds of volunteers ferrying kids to training, running the bars, setting up stalls, selling merchandise, clearing up after games, dismantling gear, collecting rubbish, reporting, blogging, running websites and generally spreading the word – and every one of them goes towards making Austria Salzburg what it is.
Perhaps the day was summed up best for me by an old bloke whose name I don’t even know because he played for Austria Salzburg long before I came to Austria; in fact long before I was born. Helped onto the stage on his crutches a small wizened man with a squeaky voice and a friendly smile said he wasn’t sure if he’d still be around at next year’s celebrations but he was very proud and happy to know his Austria Salzburg was still around.
Thanks to everybody involved and see you at the start of next season!
While convicted, Loris, a brother and a great friend of mine, asked me: “How is it going with the terraces?” It wasn’t meant to be a rhetorical question. In fact, this question sounded more or less like, “How’s mummy?”
A mother: a big water melon slice made of cement is like a mother to us.
A motherly arc where, everyday, the bodies of those who stay together all their lives swarm. If you live in a big city and you support a great team, you cannot possibly understand what a fan of Cosenza or Ancona feels like. Everything is wide in great cities, even supporters groups.
And that’s the big deal. I couldn’t lie to Loris, I had to tell him the truth. Our group had become a crowd of small groups. The greatness of the 1980s was just a memory. Nuclei Sconvolti didn’t exist anymore and you could feel it, especially when we played away. I read Valerio’s book. He explains the phenomenon clearly. Marchi often goes to the UK. He was one of the first to describe the firm phenomenon, and what happened in the 1980s, when supporters began to understand that it was necessary to disguise themselves. No more picturesque looks, no more chants, no more choreographed parades.
I knew about this before reading Valerio’s book, but I just couldn’t believe it. It sounded like fiction to me. But when I heard about the death of Vincenzo Claudio Spagnolo, who was stabbed by Milanese supporters traveling incognito with another group, I felt chills down my back and I thought: “Disguising sucks. The day I stop wearing my colors I won’t be a supporter anymore’.
One February morning, in a Naples railway station waiting room, I began to change my mind. There was a bobby. She must have had serious sexual problems with her husband. She was sharp and sour as alcoholic piss. Her eyes were deeply marked – much worse than mine, and I had just finished two days of long partying. She was holding her CB like a broken dildo, moving it back and forth in front of my eyes threateningly.
“You’re not going anywhere: give me your documents,” she shouted.
“I’ll give you my documents, but I need to take a leak,” I replied. “Just let me get out of here and go to the toilet.”
“Shut up or you’ll just get out of here to go to the polfer office (Italian railway police),” was her final say on the matter.
What was going on? What has been going on just before I found myself locked up in that fucking waiting room? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Police simply got to know that Cosenza’s supporters were coming in from the north. They just wanted to identify us and keep us locked up in the waiting room. I couldn’t stop thinking: “I’m 30 and I must ask this bitch to go to the toilet.” It was just a few of us following the club for an away match. But we were having fun. We laughed a lot from the beginning to the end. What we enjoyed most was going back home still wearing the club colors, dirty and sleepy on Monday morning when everyone goes to work. The fun was still in our minds.
A month later, I chose not to wear my scarf outside Cosenza anymore. We were back in Naples, playing at San Paolo’s. We were in the railway station subway, waiting for buses. At the front were some boys, cursing towards the police. At the end, the police started beating us up. The young boys run away. Just 5 or 6 of us stayed, trying talk to the police: “Calm down! Nothing’s happening!” They beat us up badly. It was bad. It took a morning-long operation to get back the way I am.
From then on, I started believing our group didn’t exist anymore. Police beat us up and we don’t have the strength to react. I’ll disguise too; staying among my brothers. It worked. I finally had the chance to see places and cities as well as the football ground. There are still risks: you can easily meet opposing fans and you might feel lonely or get harmed. However, it’s a less brutal experience than being beaten up by the police. In Naples, police laughed at me bleeding on the ground. When you move from your city, police try to make you different from the rest of the people. If supporters are normal people there’s no need for repression. But it is even better when fans disappear. A policeman recently said: “The real problems are supporters like Cosenza’s. You never know how many of them will travel, what time they will leave or what time they’ll arrive. They appear abruptly and they never pay for tickets.”
By Claudio Dionesalvi
Source:UnitedFans
It was in 1995 on this day in soccer history that Genoa supporter Vincenzo Claudio Spagnolo was stabbed and killed by an A.C. Milan outside the Marassi stadium. The incident sparked rioting among fans of the rival teams and forced the game was called at halftime.
The death was the first soccer related death in Italy since 1988 and drew renewed attention to violence in the stands and outside stadia in Italy. The police were ready for the replay calling in 600 riot police officers.
Riots in that day:
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