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The Ultras Movement
Too often, the ultras movement is associated with its darkest aspects
like violence and xenophobia, while forgetting that, for more than thirty
years, it has been a social phenomenon capable of uniting a large part
of the youth. At the end of the 1960’s, the ultras movement begins its
journey in Italy. The atmosphere in the stadiums changes: in the stands,
new accessories and behaviours are introduced. In contrast of the regular
spectator or football fan, the first groups of young ultras assist actively
each match by supporting their team throughout the entire party while
singing incessant chants and playing drums with their hands to rhythm
the beat their songs. They create streamers to mark their territory and
use multiple flags and smoke bombs. The concept of active and organized
supporters is finally born. The popular stands change face radically,
producing an amazing show of colors during the course of the matches.
England is a source of inspiration for the Italian ultras, particularly
for their use of scarf and standards, but also for their chants, which
resound all around the stadium. Ultras are also willing to confront other
rival ultras groups with violence. However, violence in a football field
is not news. It has always been present in the history of football: a
fight between rival supporters, invasion of the field by the crowd, throws
of objects on others…. Like all youth sub-cultures, the ultras movement
is characterized by a lifestyle, which determines the rules and actions
of the group. They are also defined by a certain way of dressing, which
distinguishes ultras among themselves. All those aspects contribute to
the identity of the group. During the 1980’s, the ultras experience a
real boom and expand in each stadium throughout Europe. The largest groups
have several thousand of members making the spectacle in the stands impressing.
The confrontation with adverse groups takes place during violent riots,
but also through the display of voiles, the performance of incredible
spectacles creating hectic atmospheres. To create such spectacles, it
sometimes takes weeks of preparation, but also large financial needs.
This is why, ultras groups are forced to produce and sell their own material
designed with the colours of the group. During the same years, the phenomenon
ultras is adopted by young supporters of south of Europe, like in Spain,
in France, in the Balkans, and in Portugal. It is only a decade later,
in 1990, that countries of North Europe, like Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia,
and part of Central Europe, join the same movement. In the 1970’s, the
political situation in Italy is destabilized and symbols of the left wing
extremism are exhibited in stadiums. The tendency, however, is reversed
in the 1990s, when members of the far right wing party and xenophobes
take advantage of the naïve youngsters in the stadiums by influencing
them to join their movement. As a result, certain groups who are not afraid
to hide their xenophobia, and who express themselves to the public by
singing racist chants expose symbols of Nazism and fascism regularly.
On the opposite, however, many other ultras groups distance themselves
from these behaviours through a series of initiatives against racism.
Streamers saying, “The Ultras unite, racism divides” become common in
the stadiums, and actions of solidarity in favor of immigrants and refugees
and even of humanitarian causes in Africa, Asia, Palestine and in the
region of Chiapas in Mexico. The actual situation of the ultras is in
a turning point forcing us to decide: are we going to assist and be part
of the inexorable expansion of xenophobic and nationalistic tendencies
in the majority of European stadiums, or else are we going to lead a resistance
promoting the acceptance of others to stop or at least reduce this dangerous
progression ?
