Alberto Testa

Football Fascism and Fandom: The UltraS of Italian Football

Passionate, political and principled, the UltraS are the hardcore subculture of football supporters found in the stadiums of Italy. Amongst the most committed and uncompromising are two such groups who gather in support of the main football clubs of Rome - AS Roma and SS Lazio. Openly proclaiming neo-fascist sympathies, and not afraid of violence against rival supporters and police, these groups (the Boys Roma and the Lazio Irriducibili) are well-organised and determined to bring about social and political change and stamp out those who oppose them. The much-maligned football hooligans of England pale by comparison. Following years of research involving individuals inside these organisations, and drawing on exclusive interviews with each groups leading figures, Alberto Testa presents a fascinating account of the world of the neo-fascist UltraS.

Words and Actions: Italian Ultras and Neo-Fascism

Over the past two decades the link – perceived and actual – between political extremism and football fans has been the subject of academic, political, and policing debate. It is not rare to witness manifestations of intolerance and ideological statements referring to regional, national and international issues at football stadia. In Italian football stadia, political representation has been evident for decades; politics has been integral to all realms of Italian society and culture since the origin of the nation. As one of the most significant Italian cultural practices, football has not been an exception. This combination of theory and action inspires thousands of young male football supporters. The football stadium might thus be interpreted as a twenty-first century social Agorá, where political opinions – otherwise ghettoized in society – can be freely expressed in pursuit of a wider consensus. This paper explores the under-researched milieu of neo-fascist ideology as displayed in contemporary Italian football stadia. Contributing original material and employing as conceptual frameworks the New Consensus Theory on fascism and the works of Julius Evola and Georges Sorel, this analysis hypothesizes that the neo-fascist tenets manifested by the ideologically-oriented ‘ultras’ fan groups, may be understood as both a consequence of, and a resistance against the dominant socio-cultural and political values of contemporary Italy. The research conducted between 2003–2007 sought to evaluate two internationally renowned ultras groups located in the Italian capital of Rome: the Boys of AS Roma and the Irriducibili of SS Lazio who enact their performances on their respective ‘curve’ [football terraces] of the citys Olympic stadium. Utilizing the ethnographic method, unique access was achieved in a notoriously difficult research milieu bringing the researcher into the social-cultural world of the participants and to the echelons of the extra-parliamentary Italian far right. Research sought to uncover the groups’ social interactions, values, and political beliefs, as a way of contributing to an understanding of both the Italian ultras of the twenty-first century and indeed the wider political milieu of the modern nation-state of Italy.

Purity and danger: policing the Italian neo-Fascist football UltraS

The rise of the Far Right in Europe over the past decade has attracted the attention of both academics and police. Popular sports tend to reflect societal trends so it is not bizarre that a popular European cultural practice such as football has seen a rise in supporters with neo‐fascist sympathies. Football (soccer in the USA), specifically in Italy, has been linked since the beginning to politics and its stadiums have always been one of the most efficient public Agorá for the socialization of the Italian youth. In recent years, together with an ideologization of the football terraces, there has been a noticeable increase in conflict between hardcore football supporters and the Italian police at and around the stadium. These conflicts often involve the UltraS as the main participants. The final capital S identifies neo‐fascist‐oriented fans, distinguishing them from mainstream hardcore football supporters, known as ultrá. This paper is the result of ethnographic research lasting six years (2003–2009). The research aimed to investigate the world of the UltraS by using two notorious national and international UltraS as case study. The groups, the Boys and the Irriducibili, support AS Roma and SS Lazio, respectively. Both are located in the Italian capital city of Rome. The present paper aims to investigate the relationship between the neo‐fascist UltraS and the institutions that they identify as their enemies, namely, the Italian State and the police.

Contested Meanings: The Italian Media and the UltraS

Despite their presence in Italian football stadiums, the UltraS have been the subject of limited empirical research. I use the capital S to identify neo-fascist oriented fans to distinguish them from the wider football supporters ultra’ (Testa and Armstrong 2008; Testa 2009; Testa and Armstrong 2010a). This study is part of a series of publications to fill in this lacuna; it is part of an ethnographic research project carried out from 2003 to 2009. The research aimed to analyze the UltraS social world using as a sample two hardcore subculture of fans at the two main Rome football clubs AS Roma and SS Lazio. With neo-fascist sympathies, these groups -the Boys at Roma and the Irriducibili at Lazioare political and well-organized (Testa and Armstrong, 2010a). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the UltraS and the Italian media; the media are often considered by the UltraS as enemies because believed to be biased against them. To complement the ethnographic data, three renowned Italian sports journalists were interviewed in 2008. One was Franco Arturi, deputy director of La Gazzetta dello Sport, which is the most established and popular of the Italian sport newspapers. Another was Giuseppe Tassi, a sport journalist and deputy director of Quotidiano.net (internet edition of the Resto del Carlino, La Nazione and Il Giorno editorial group). The third was Gabriele Marcotti, journalist for the British The Times and the popular Italian daily IL Corriere dello Sport. Analysis stresses the importance of media coverage in influencing the UltraS deviant dynamics and suggests, considering the experiences of other European countries, a reduction of media attention towards the UltraS as a strategy to contain this phenomenon.

Normalization of the exception: issues and controversies of the Italian counter-hooliganism legislation

Since 1989, the year which witnessed the first Italian football-spectator anti-violence law (Law n.401/1989) approved by the Italian Parliament, football-spectator violence has been tackled by the Italian Government using emergency legislation, tens of ministerial directives and various rulings of sporting bodies. This paper aims to explain the development of the legislation employing, at the same time as an interpretational framework, Giorgio Agambens1 State of Exception theory. Following Agambens analytical framework, this paper asserts that the developments of the Italian counter-hooliganism legislation is based on a strategy of controlling biopolitical risk which not only challenges the civil liberties of Italian football fans but also constructs the same football fans as ‘ideal suspects’.2

'We are Against Islam!': The Lega Nord and the Islamic Folk Devil

Since 1995, the Italian Lega Nord (LN) political party has depicted itself as the defender of Padania, a territory that covers the mainly affluent regions of Northern Italy. Around this politico-spatial territory, the LN has shaped an identity based on the notion of Popolo Padano (the Padanian People). Since the new millennium, LN rhetoric has increasingly focused—stemming more from the demands of realpolitik than those of conviction—on opposing irregular immigration per se and, more specifically, Islam and Muslim immigration. In the eyes of the LN propagandists and their media, the theology of Islam and its practitioners represent a growing threat to the modern Italian and Padanian identity (and tradition). The LN has not been alone in using the media to oppose Islam; the Italian media has reinforced LN messages; Muslims are generally depicted as dangerous and compared with terrorists and their religion and culture are described as the opposite of Italian/West values. Something approximating to a “moral panic” around this issue has ensued. Integral to this are notions of morality combined with practices of moral entrepreneurship. What follows seeks to highlight the LN’s stereotypical depictions of Islam. This evaluation is important because the LN was a major player in former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government (2008-2011) and is still a significant party among the Italian political spectrum. Integral to what follows are the following questions: “Is contemporary Islamic immigration a threat to the Italian (and Padanian) way of life?” and “Are the perceived threats to be found in the periodic uncertainties that societies suffer or might we need to search for wider processes?”