To deny adversarial behavior amongst the support groups would be short of lying. I agree with you, there is a lot of hostility occurring amongst both the parties. In this case, we have already mentioned that the adversary is delivered in the form of controversial banners, where anything from ‘scantily clad women’ to ‘marijuana leaves’ are depicted to capture attention. You did say that this is coming from “both sides”, which is important to note. That is telling to the fact that the members of both support group are subjected to adversary and hostility, they are aware of it and they look for it. It is a give and take, consider it a mutual understanding of a sorts. This is part of the subculture which is correlated with Soccer support group banter, that is a given. Neither the Ultras nor the sounders go to games expecting to like each other because they WANT to ‘hate’ each other. Creating distinct boundaries between themselves and the opposition team is important. Why? Because it creates solidarity between the fans, it defines the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, and most important of all it evokes a sense of pride amongst the team members. It functions as a seed for group passion.

This kind of hostility which uses banners and chants is harmless. Again, no one is being subjected to physical injury. Of course, we have a few fans who are not hesitant of expressing feeling offended by such tifo. I said it before and I will say it again, such tifo is self-expression done for shock-value. If the opposing support group is offended by this, perhaps they should join a Symphony band, those are peaceful and harmonious.

As far as children being exposed to such tifo, lets consider choices, options, and other subjects. If you feel that ‘scantily clad women’, ‘marijuana leaves’, and ‘blow-up dolls’ are not the scene for your little cousin, sure enough, you can put your wheel in reverse and find a little-league Soccer group to follow. I heard those are real fun and fair, in fact, they don’t even play to win anymore, its an ‘everyone is a winner, no one gets hurt’ event. Again, we forget that we have choices, I am glad to remind you of them.

Often, we forget that we cannot control the people around us, we cannot limit the messages around us, and we cannot expect other people to accommodate themselves to our ideas of ‘offensive’ and ‘adversarial. For example, one man’s idea of adversary is another man’s idea of fanfare. Lets come to terms with that. I can go much deeper into the millions of other messages and visual phenomenon children are exposed to. I can go into the increase of children watching Jersey Shore (to summarize, a show about getting ass, demeaning girls, and talking shit). I can go into the increase of children being exposed to sexual advertisements practically everywhere they go. How much can you control? If anything, they are better off being exposed to caricatures of ‘scantily clad woman’ than porn. Or being exposed to depictions of marijuana leaves than actually smoking them. They are better off spending time with their uncle and getting bits and pieces of this tifo than actually participating the actual acts.

To answer your question, the European teams you mentioned above do not have controversial tifo (at least from my research, I could not find any). However, what I did come across are a whole lot of stories involving violence. If you want to check out one in specific, I’ll paste the link below. Smart and successful groups in all cases use visuals and music to capture their audience. So, if the Ultras picked up on this and used it to their advantage, while the ECS clung to their flowery tifo, what better to do than to bring in the F.O? That is practically breaking all unspoken rules of fanfare and playing the legal card, basically saying, “lets bring in the law and shit all over the party.”

So to answer your question, yes, ‘this ridiculousness’ is absolutely important in ‘keeping the game entertaining’. It serves a purpose: it is this ridiculousness which is responsible for the strong ties between the Ultras. It is this ridiculousness which is responsible for the die-hard brotherhood portrayed. It is this ridiculousness which can be attributed to the growing MLS support in the Bay Area. It is this ridiculousness that gets people to come back to the next game. Where the Earthquakes score the goals, the Ultras are who actually sell the tickets.

If you want to speak for yourself when you are talking about outsiders finding it ‘sad’, by all means, the floor is yours. However, I don’t believe you are right. You can ask the Ultras supporters yourself, but I believe I am properly informed when I say, many of the members of the team were just ‘outsiders’ to begin with, perhaps something about the ridiculousness appealed to them and they joined. This guy also seemed to find them pretty appealing, “What is the Ultras’ opinion on Heart of An Ultra being sung by people like me, just joe fan, at a match? On one hand, that’s your song, no one else’s, on the other hand, isn’t the Ultra spirit of loyalty what we all want throughout the stadium?”

This is how a ‘Social Movement’ is defined:

“Social movements form as people begin working in coordination with other people toward an end. As people begin taking note of what unites them with others, they begin to interact with those others. As they talk, their energies begin complementing each other and they begin working together. This is the emergence of a social movement.”

So yes, this ‘woman’ is definitely comparing the Ultras to a Social Movement.

-ultRasgirl

@ryanfrommontana, I’ll marry you, but you will have to move to California!

http://ultras-around-the-world.blogspot.com/2009/04/bayern-munich-vs-barcelona.html

Being adversarial with opposing teams and their fans is a part of rivalries, no? Us and Seattle have grown to hate each other throughout the last 3 years for many different reasons. I can ask the same thing to Boston fans about their hate New York and they would collectively look at you confused and say “because we hate them” (yes, generalization, but I hope you get the picture)

It may not bring the crowds in at Barca, Bayern (eh, it might), or Arsenal games but it definitely does at Roma, Milan, Inter, Dortmound, St. Pauli, Fenerbache, Galatassaray (sorry for a misspell), and other teams. However, saying that, don’t suggest that we are here to bring in the crowds, that is not our job. That is the job of the FO and their Fans Relations, Ticketing, Marketing, etc. departments. Our job is to support out Boys in Blue on the pitch.

The simple fact is that you do not understand what it takes to be an Ultra, but may very well be a GREAT Quakes fan. I am not going to slam you with some “oh you’re not like us so you’re not a fan,” because you may be spreading the word about the Quakes, bringing people to games, buying merchandise, or whatever and that’s great! Not all Quakes fans need to be Ultras for this club to succeed into the future, but as you could see on Saturday, the Ultras are a viable part of the gameday atmosphere and is GREATLY appreciated by the players. Again, the protest was not about the tifo itself but a mess of issues laid on in this blog post.

if you would like a lesson in what Ultras are about (not us, but the entire movement) then I would use Ultrasgirl’s post as a stepping stone into your research, because she gets it.

What is the point of being so adversarial, both with opposing teams and their fans and with the front office of the team that you supposedly support?
It’s a freaking soccer game. If I’m taking my little cousin, I’d rather not see scantily clad women, blow up dolls, or marijuana leaves. Does that sort of thing show up in the crowd at Barcelona / Bayern / Arsenal games?

I agree with the front office, in fact ALL the “tifo” mentioned here is a bad representation of the club, MLS, and soccer in the US. I think it must stem from some inferiority complex. Soccer is here to stay in the US, why don’t you relax just a bit. Do you really need this ridiculousness to keep the game entertaining? I know we Quakes fans have plenty of reasons to be bitter, but to an outsider this supporters group stuff just looks a bit sad. I’ve seen plenty of inoffensive tifo, how about some more of that? What point are you trying to prove by pushing the envelope? Is attendance at Buck Shaw too high at 9,000 so we need to drive some families and casual fans away?

To the woman above: you’re comparing a group of soccer fans who make “tifo” to social movements? Really??

This is disheartening on many levels. Firstly, it is unfortunate that litigious means have to be used in this type of a situation. Because, let’s face it, this is not about being ‘offended’ and feeling ‘threatened’ as much as it is about competition and causing the other side inconvenience. What can be more inconvenient than the Earthquake’s number one support group not being able to show up to the games? What can be more demeaning than not being present for the very purposes that the Ultras were created? That is what I call a thrust-to-the-face. If this is what the Seattle fans were looking to do, they have accomplished it. You guys are now a victim of YOUR very own passion.

This is no better than the feeling of being oppressed. It might be occurring on a much smaller scale, but this is really no different than having your Freedom of Speech jeopardized. Why? For someone who felt offended by a comic depiction of Charlie Sheen? Charlie Sheen is the current laughing stock of America, how can anything attached to him be offensive? Apparently, some people are offended by it. If this were occurring in a setting where this type of banter is obviously prohibited, it would be justified.

Looking at it from a panoramic point of view, let’s take into consideration that this is a SOCCER match. The banners are for shock value, sure, but they are not intended to hurt anyone. I think some people miserably lose sight of context and perception. The Giants fan that is in a critical condition after being severely injured by a Dodgers fan, now that is something to really cry about. Whimpering about a few successfully illustrated posters? That is child’s play. People lose sight, like this particular Seattle fan while going to Twitter to file this complaint. He lost sight of the fact that this is NOT a war, like the ones overseas where men are actually being injured and dying over winning and losing warfare. No, this is a Soccer match, where a few slightly vulgar but more humorous banners intend to do nothing more than jolt the audience. This is not warfare, this is fanfare.

As far as the F.O stepping in, let’s just say this much, they are no different than the overpowered Government. They step in and put their foot down and they wear the big black heavy boots. The bad thing about the Government is that it too has blurry vision, clouded by those who feel marginalized. What the Government often forgets is that those who feel marginalized do not represent the masses. In this case, F.O’s vision is clouded by the complaints from those who find it important to make complaints.

Let’s not forget that there were hundreds of other people at the Match, including children, parents, and other people who have a much bigger reason to raise an eye-brow at the Ultras’ banners and chants. If these people (Sounder fans), being self-proclaimed Soccer fans are communicating with the world via Twitter that they feel offended by all of the above, then the only conclusion I can draw is that they should not be part of Soccer culture. This whole concept of Soccer support groups and Fanbase originated in Europe, where the supporters and fans were REAL hooligans, often times they were labeled as Thugs. It is not to say that than Support Groups have or should have an element of violence. Let’s not forget the history of support groups and the fact that the seeds of their origin were not planted for those who are easily offended by a few silly banners.

Again, this is disheartening. Watching someone trying take away the ‘heart of an Ultra’, is saddening. Support groups are made for this very purpose. You said it well, “we can police ourselves,” you sure can. That is the purpose of having a support group, just the structure and the existence of having a Support group is a proclamation equivalent of saying, “Hey, we can police ourselves, we don’t need you to tell us what to do.” That is why these teams have Captains. Correct me if I am wrong but I highly doubt that the Cappo of the Ultras is telling you to outrage and injure the opposition fans. Sure, he might be telling you to give them an ‘in-your-face’ via banners and etc., but he is not invested in harming them. This of course is presented with the Ultras’ banner paying respect to the death of an opposing team member. That itself is proof to the fact that, this is just a game and at the end of the day we are all people. Again, this is not a war. In fact, the true act of war is committed by the fan who found it important to contact the F.O and file a complaint.

“In the strange heat all litigation brings to bear on things, the very process of litigation fosters the most profound misunderstandings in the world.”

Ultras, this is where you come in, especially as a ‘Social Movement’, this time more than EVER. Social movements have the power to capture people, to motivate, mobilize, and contextualize. What you did here today with your ten points is exactly that. You made this relevant to the world, you made this important TODAY. Why the hell should anyone care about all of this? Because, the way I see it, the banner is social expression, the rest of the audience who had no problem with the Ultras Tifo is like the mass of American population, and the Sounder’s fan who felt offended is like the one person who uses litigation as a means to an end (he has an axe to grind), and the F.O is like the Government who favors the marginalized while losing sight of what is really at stake here. In this case, what is at stake are not our feelings, rather what is at stake here are our freedoms.
Just the other day, I asked myself, how are the Ultras a Social Movement?

Well guys, I just got my answer.