Ultras in Denmark. The new football thugs?

Abstract

It is no longer just the notorious ‘football hooligans’ who appear to behave in a problematic way in connection with football matches. Since the beginning of the 2000s, ultras have increasingly been playing the most acoustically and optically noticeable role in the Danish stadiums. This article looks in more detail at the moderate Danish ultras, who proactively work for a positive, intense fan culture that rejects discrimination and violence and try to promote better conditions for supporters, and the consequences of the criminalization of fan behaviour. The article concludes that there is a lack of knowledge of the specific sub-cultural backgrounds of the various supporters’ behaviour, but also of fan culture as a whole among the authorities and clubs.

Notes

1. Reicher et al., ‘An Integrated’.

2. See e.g. Pilz and Wölki-Schumacher, Overview; Kennedy, ‘A Contextual’; Guschwan, ‘Performance’.

3. The police used to divide football supporters into three categories: A, B and C. Category A are those supporters who pose no danger to public order. Category B are those who might participate in unrest under certain conditions and category C consists of the supporters who actively seek out trouble and go to matches looking to fight. These categories are extremely simplistic in comparison to the very high complexity of football fan culture. Nevertheless, the police categories have become even more simplistic with the introduction of the categorization into risk supporters (B and C) and non-risk supporters (A). Here, categories B and C have been merged into one category. In practice, such categorizations mean that supporters who have vastly different values and views on legitimate fan behaviour are seen as one and thus subject to the same treatment, often consisting of counter-hooliganism strategies, and this undifferentiated view on supporters increases the risk of contributing to the problems (Stott and Pearson, Football Hooliganism; Friedmann, Polizei und Fans; Linkelmann, ‘Feindbild Polizei’).

4. Brøndby IF, F.C. København, Aarhus GF, Odense Boldklub, Viborg FF and AaB Fodbold.

5. see Robson, Real World Research.

6. Marcus, Ethnography through Thick and Thin.

7. Bernard, Research Methods in Anthropology.

8. Sands, Sport Ethnography.

9. Waddington, ‘Participant Observation’.

10. Frey, Botan and Kreps, Investigating Communication.

11. Brinkmann, Qualitative Inquiry.

12. Joern, Homo Fanaticus; Havelund & Joern, ‘Categorisation of’.

13. Pearson, An Ethnography.

14. Ibid, 4.

15. For a detailed review of the Italian ultras, see Testa and Armstrong, Football Fascism and Fandom; Guschwan, ‘Football Fandom in Italy’.

16. Francesio, TifareContro .

17. King, The End; Ziesche, Reclaiming the Game.

18. Joern, Homo Fanaticus

19. Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition.

20. Christie, En Passende .

21. Carnibella et al., Football Violence in Europe.

22. See e.g. Joern, Homo Fanaticus; Joern, ‘Nothing to hide’; Gabler, Die Ultras .

23. Becker, Outsiders .

24. http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/watching-football-is-not-a-crime/ (last accessed 27 November 2016).

25. See Langer, Kriminalisierung .

26. Brehm, A Theory; Brehm and Brehm, Psychological Reactance; Dillard and Shen, ‘On the Nature of Reactance’.

27. Langer, Kriminalisierung .

28. Stott and Pearson, Football Hooliganism; Pearson, An Ethnography.

29. See e.g. cf. Guschwan, ‘Stadium as Public Sphere’; Guschwan, ‘Performance in the Stands’.