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In this chapter I will try to figure out in which way the fans differ from some countries and how they behave.
GERMANY: These supporters come from the middle class of society and not like the British mostly from the working class. The fans can be divided into three broad types:
. The consumer-oriented fan that sits in the stands or seeks a quiet spot on the terraces and wants to see a good game; he chooses which matches he wants to attend.
. The football-oriented fan that is dressed in his team colours and wears badges, he is a member of a supporters club and stands on the terraces and stands to his club through thick and thin; he attends every match.
. The adventure-oriented fan who changes his spot on the terraces from game to game and wants to see something happen, whether it has anything to do with football or not; he seeks violent adventure both inside and outside the stadium.
The German police use a simple classification to defied fans:
. Non violent (the peaceful fan)
. Prone to violence (the fan who will be violent given the right opportunity)
. Actually violent (the fan who is most likely to be violent)
A lot of real troublemakers have been banned from the official fan clubs, but they have formed their own gangs. They also publish magazines such as the "Fan-Treff". A lot of people think that German hooligans are right winged, and in fact, there are some groups who wear Nazi symbols and shout Hitler salutes, but the political attitude of German fans shows mainly a sympathy for democratic parties (35%) or have no politics at all (24%), about 20% of the supporters define themselves as right-winged.
ITALY: In Italy, there appears a wide range of social classes among "normal" football fans, but researches have found out that the hard-core fans (ultras) are working-class. There are also a large number of females and some students who support their club very hard.
In all cases, the average age of the most violent supporters was lower than the age of the more neutral fans. More than 50% of people involved in violent incidents were under 21 years old.
The culture of football is in Italy a national fever and for millions of citizens, workers, and students a way of life. The Italian fans differ from other supporters in the aspect that they are very enthusiastic, highly organized, they have a "theatrical" style of support that has also spread to other nations, like France or Denmark. If they visit a football match, they have flags, banners, coloured smoke, laser shows, choreographed chanting and singing, conducted by ultra leaders using megaphones.
Journalists call ultras wonderful spectators, when everything is going well, such as celebration, but they call them hooligans when there is trouble. But in both cases, they are talking about the same people. Nearly fifty percent are involved in violence and in theatrical support.
FRANCE: In France football has never had such a big number of live spectators as in other European countries. They are only one third compared to other countries. In the 1960s and 1970s football was not so popular in France, but in the 1980s and 1990s there was an increase in the interest again. The difference from French football to the British is that all social classes are well represented. Some say that the majority of the spectators consist of the working class; whereas other think that it is the middle class that is most involved in football violence.
The police say that the so-called hooligans are young, white males, mostly working class, and employed in skilled and unskilled jobs. Some of the more powerful "skinhead" members of the Paris Saint-Germain club come from the upper middle classes-sons of lawyers and managers. The French fans do not favour the English style, they are more likely to copy the Italian style with the singing and chanting and livening up the terraces - in fact the French ultras are more interested in creative elements than in aggression. Rivalry between the clubs centre on who is the most creative and who has the best songs rather than who is the toughest.
THE NETHERLANDS: Football Hooliganism in the Netherlands is heavily influenced by the Italian style. This is characterized by the colourful costumes and a carnival atmosphere of singing, dancing and good-natured celebration. But there are not only non-violent celebrations to be found in this land: their arch-enemies are the Germans and the groups of hooligans have fanzines and Internet news pages such as the "Daily Hooligan" where the fights are described with pride and are illustrated with photographs.
The Dutch Siders (equivalent of the ultras) are getting away from their teams and clubs more and more. They visit high-risk matches when a team with a violent Side is playing; this game is attended by far greater numbers of young people. The young people often support another football club, if their old one gets too boring. The main part of the fans can be found in the lower educated class. The age is also going down more and more: 43% of the Hooligans are aged 16 to 18 years, 28% are aged 19 to 21 years and almost none is over the age of 30. The supporters have very often had a problematic school career and lack of parental control.
AUSTRIA: The members of Austrian fan clubs are generally very young (the average age is at 18 years) and they belong mainly to the lower-middle classes. It is also important to say, that a highly percentage of the supporters (23%) are unemployed. Nearly half of the arrested fans had been in trouble with the police, mainly for vandalism and incidents with physical violence, but serious injuries were very rare. When incidents occur, the violence is not against other supporter groups but between fans and other spectators.
More recently, there is noted an increasing involvement of neo-Nazi skinheads in Austrian football hooliganism.
DENMARK: The Danish supporters, called Roligans are very enthusiastic, but mainly peaceful. They are seen as the opposite of the English hooligan.
The majority of Roligans (42%) are in skilled or civil service jobs, and the age of the supporters is surprisingly high (about 30 years). 15% of the fans are women, but the organized Danish Roligan Association reports a 45% female membership. The leading football clubs Brôndby Copenhagen and FC Copenhagen have the largest supporter groups. The one of Brôndby Copenhagen counts 10.000 registered members, which shows that football is a family activity in Denmark. Many families with children are watching the matches. The Danish idea of the game is the sentence "football has to do with laughter" and even the influence of excessive alcohol drinking does not make them violent.
Their political attitude shows that they have nearly no right winged fans and the majority (47%) defines themselves as socialist.
All in all it has to be said that violence occurs in nearly every country where football is played, but if varies from the culture to culture, because they all have other historical, political and cultural traditions.
But what you also can say is the stage of violence a country is in. This is divided in three stages:
1. Stage one is sporadic violence directed at officials or at players themselves.
2. The second stage involves an increase in aggression between opposing groups of fans and between fans and police.
3. The third stage is known by an increase in violence outside the stadium, which means that the rival groups of supporters are fighting in the streets; railway destruction and acts of theft and vandalism are also very often found in this stage.
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