The Political Depths of Football Fan Hooliganism
Words by Alexi Barnstone
In 1930 Nobel laureate Thomas Mann delivered a speech titled An Appeal to Reason in which he strongly denounced the Nazi movement. In the speech, and myriad other essays and lectures on the evil of the Nazis, he encouraged the working class to resist the fascist movement and coined a most famous quote; “Everything is Politics.”
When Celtic Hooligan fan group The Hoops unfurled a green banner with the words ‘Brigate Verde’ printed on it we were reminded that 79 years on we are not rid of this central tenet to Mann’s polemic.
In between the two Italian words on the banner, which mean brigade and green, there was a white star encircled by a thin line. The banner covered The Hoops’ corner of Celtic Park during a Europa League match between Italian side Lazio and Scottish outfit Celtic in Glasgow on Friday morning.
The match itself was riveting. Lazio took an early lead from a counter attack expertly dispatched rocket by Manuel Lazzari. In the second half the green and white players of Celtic levelled the game through the tidy left foot of Ryan Christie. And in the dying embers of the game, in the 89th minute of 90, Christopher Jullien rose highest from a corner kick to header the home team into the lead. The crowd went berserk with the euphoria of irrational, vicarious pride and success. The game is one that will live in the memory of Celtic supporters for some time. It is the sort of match one may consider encouraging their less fanatical friends to watch in a ploy to ignite the addictive nature of fandom.
However, there was more to this game than the scoreline. Everything is politics.
Prior to kick off Lazio hooligans marched down the streets of Glasgow, some of them making Nazi salutes. The footage joins a montage of evidence pointing toward deep rooted fascism in the fan base of the Italian side. In April of this year Lazio fans were photographed making the Sieg Heil salute in front of a banner that read “honour to Mussolini.”
The green banner held by the Celtic fans last Friday resembles, in logo and title, two historic factions of Italian politics.
The first is the far-left terrorist group Brigate Rosse – meaning Red Brigade - which championed the circle and star logo. The organisation was active during the 1970s and 80s, gaining notoriety through a series of bank robberies, sabotages, kidnappings and murders. The group’s manifesto, released in 1975, claimed the Italian government to be ‘Stato Imperialista delle Multinazionali’- a state of imperialist multinational corporations serving the interests of capital. In 1978 the infamy of Brigate Rosse peaked when they kidnapped and assassinated former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro.
The second group represented by the Celtic banner is Brigate Fiamme Verdi. The Green Flame Brigade was a resistance militancy fighting against the Italian fascism of Mussolini during World War II and is often cited as one of the inspirations for the formation of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigade) in 1970. The historic Italian resistance force also shared the Celtic religion; Catholicism.
As recruitment platforms, propagandists, and assemblies, football clubs and their hooligans hold a firm place in both the historical and contemporary political landscape.
In the 90s the hooligans of the Serbian team Red Star Belgrade were transformed into a special ops force during the Balkan Wars, a member of which would be responsible for the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Dindic.
When you watch El Classico, Real Madrid against Barcelona, you are watching two of the greatest teams of the world. You are also watching the Catalans continue their fight for independence. Franco loved Madrid, made it the capital, and called for centralisation and the acquiescence of the Catalans.
In 2018 Al Jazeera unveiled the ties held by Generation Identity, a far-right movement, to both Nazis and the National Rally – Marine Le Pen’s political party – which won over 10 million votes in the 2017 election cycle. One of the feeders for Generation Identity was the fan base of Lille OSC, members of which have been linked to assaults on Arabic people in the French city.
In a time of increasing polarisation and extremism football clubs seem to have a role to play. The happenings in Glasgow are testament to that fact.
From across the grassy no man’s land upon which an encapsulating rendition of the beautiful game unfolded, Lazio fans watched as Celtic fans defiantly hoisted a green banner. On it was the warning of the encircled star. That day, Lazio fans received both a beating on the pitch and a reprimanding from across it.