The start was of CFR Cluj, a team which came a long way since 6 years ago, when it played in third division. With massive investment in it by a Hungarian ethnic named Arpad Paskany and with the majority of players being foreigners, this team managed to win the championship and the cup last year. The ultras scene at this team isn’t that good, as the first team of Cluj with tradition is their arch - rival, U Cluj. The away trip to Rome was good enough or them, 300 persons from which some Romanian workers in Italy, all the important groups being present :
Here is the opinion of Lorenzo, ASRomaultras webmaster about them, in Italian:
Tifo Cluj:
Colorati i 350 tifosi rumeni, che incitano la squadra all’antica, con tanta voce e battimani. Si fanno sentire, complice la buona prestazione della loro squadra. Il tifo è un po’ datato, specialmente per i cori ma, in ogni caso, è stato assai più che sufficiente per farsi sentire nell’Olimpico semivuoto:
Voto: 6,5

The next day came the game of Steaua against the Germans from Bayern Munchen. The North terrace of Steaua had a coreo that with a sun made of papers and a canvas which had on it the attack of a Turkish army (Steaua played with Galatasaray in the last round), with the message THE SIXTH HORIZON IN THE EUROPEAN ELITE (Steaua played until now 6 times in Champions League).


Also worth mentioning is decent support from Bayern fans, however, one must say that they came in much bigger number last year when they played the other Steaua (in translation Star) from Belgrade, the Red Star (I was at that game and they were about 1 000 Germans). More photos here.

Thursday came the games in Uefa. As expected, Urziceni didn’t have any fans in the away trip with Hamburg. This team has a real smell of artificial team.
Vaslui fans were only 12 in Prague(6 from South terrace, 6 from North terrace). They came with 3 cars, but needless to say, very small presence :

Rapid went to Wolsfburg, against the third german team Romanian teams were up against.
Since 2 years ago, when Rapid played with other 3 German teams, you could see a decrease in number and in quality in their away trip, caused by the lack of enthusiasm and also because the important groups of Rapid dissapeared because conflicts with the older, mafia-connected, persons from their terrace. You can see more photos from this game here, nothing important to mention about Wolfsburg fans.

Dinamo Bucarest played in Nijmengen, in a game that was considered easy, on the pitch and in the stands. This wasn’t the case, Dinamo lost 1-0 and there were some riots in the stands, in the last minutes of the game. Dinamo ultras threw some torches on the pitch. Nijmengen attacked their sector, the rest you can see in these 2 videos:

As usual, the press made a huge scandal about the Dinamo “hooligans” and how will Dinamo loose the game with 3-0 because of them. The reality is that NEC fans attacked, Dinamo just fought back. The rest is press bullshit, which also made up a story about how Dutch police found drugs in the toilets of Dinamo ultras.

Also an exageration of the press went down in Poli Timisoara’s game against Partizan. Some minor incidents occurred before the game, leaving the chance for “journalists” to speak about the hooligans from Belgrade.
Inside the stadium, South terrace of Timisoara had a very nice choreo, about the identity of their club, a subject very talked these days because Uefa doesn’t let them be called Politehnica or use violet colors, because they say another club has the right to use it (the club of an Italian puppet called Zambon, who’s team now plays somewhere around Bucharest).
The choreo had the message: WE ARE POLI 1921.

Also some messages in Serbian made by the young &restless North terrace of Timisoara:

More photos and videos from this game can be found here

That’s all folks, we wait for the round of 29 September- 1 October for a new report about the Romanian teams in the European Cups.

Fc Arges Pitesti - Politehnica Timisoara was te first game of comeback for Pitesti ultras in the first league. They made a small choreo with an ultras and a player, with the message: “Ready to fight”

Timisoara fans that came to the game showed only one banner: Politehnica Timisoara. They will only show this banner from now on, and not the banners of their groups, because of the situation that they are in (identity confusion for the club, the International Sport’s Court from Laussane forbidden them to use the name “Politehnica” so from now on, until the situation is changed, theu will play under the name FC Timisoara).

Rapid Bucuresti - Gloria Bistrita - nothing out of the ordinary, Bistrita has few supporters, photos with Rapid here

Gloria Buzau - Farul Constanta - after quite a long time for Farul in a mediocre support, they managed to get about 100 people to Buzau. One group made even a small choreo, the photos can be seen here. Buzau supporters are few, the club doesn’t have a tradition of support, the majority of the fans still like the 3 big teams in Bucarest (Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid, but especially Steaua).

Pandurii Targu Jiu - Dinamo - at this game Dinamo had about 350 fans from North terrace (PCH) and 100 from the South (ZEL). A group that is curently supporting Dinamo from the II Tribune of their stadium (or East if you want) - Brigate, made a message for their striker, Marius Niculae, who is announced to retourn to play for Dinamo.

The banner means something like” Unconditioned respect for Marius Niculae - real dog” *Dinamo are called the dogs or red dogs.

At Gaz Metan Medias - Otelul Galati, the Otelul fans had a real ugly match. During their long away trip, one of the lads decided to kill himself and the boys found him hanged at a stop near Brasov. Because of this, they didn’t sing all the game… RIP Gogu.

The game U Craiova - Poli Iasi was played without fans because of incidents created by Craiova fans in the last round of 2006/2007 championship.

At Otopeni - CFR Cluj (played in Ploiesti, at Astra stadium) nothing special to signal except a messaje made by Romaniacs(a young and radical group of CFR Cluj). It is really a pity that teams with many ultras, like UTA Arad or U Cluj relegated last season, and instead of them came teams like Otopeni or Gaz metan Medias, without any ultras or even supporters.

The high light of the round (FC Vaslui - Steaua) was played only wednesday because Vaslui played in Intertoto cup. meanwhile, Steaua played a friendly game with AS Roma (you can see some good photos with the supporters at this game here).

At Fc Vaslui - Steaua some incidents occured before and during the game, but nothing really serious. Because of them, vaslui’s chore turned out a little bad (The letters are P N V - meaning North Terrace Vaslui):

Here is a photo with Steaua fans present at the game:

A interesting episode during the game was made by the fans from Vaslui who have interdiction to attend matches (in Romania these interdictions are from 6 months to 3 years). They sat on a building very near the stadium , light some smoke bombs and had the message: “Suspend us also here!”

If you have any questions fell free to post them as comments.

At the home game, Vaslui ultras from the North terrace (main groups are curently Dorobantii and Excentric) made a choreo composed of 8 canvases. On each canvas there was a letter made in the language of deaf people: FC VASLUI. The message was: “Even we would remain without our voices, you would still feel us in the stands”:

The choreo was initialy prepared in a more complicated way, unfortunately for Vaslui ultras, very few spectators came, bacuse of the heavy rain that flooded Moldavia these days and because of the exagerated price tickets the club put for this game (10 euros for the North/South terraces, considering that vaslui is one of the poorest cities in Romania).

Delta Tulcea

FC Arges

Steaua

U Cluj

Poli Timisoara

UTA Arad

Dinamo

Of course, like it always happens, things evolve. Different way of using the scarf appeared(you know how…). But the most spectacular change was made by their color and their form.. Today we meet very long or very wide scarves, or tiny ones. They are made of a variety of fabrics: wool, polyester, cotton. They use a lot of colors, not to talk about the many badges and symbols. Today they make very specialized scarves: to show your attachment towards the club, towards a player, to express your hate for a club or for a group of rival supporters. Or to commemorate a special day or a hero.
It’s obvious that this item so dear to us was affected by mercantilism. The clubs gain a lot of money on some scarves that have nothing to do with anything.. -see recent examples in Germany or Spain with scarves from Adidas, Kappa, etc. More serious is that organized groups of supporters sell their materials too easy. It all started with wanting to be independent from your club. Then everything got out of hand, transforming into an industry. So that things could be more serious, also fakes appeared.. So that, nowadays, the scarf has become something ordinary and sometimes trivial. The respect and veneration from old times was lost.
Now I want to tell you what I personally feel for my scarf. I wanted to be a short introduction but … anyway, 1 000 words are not enough to explain what I feel in one second, when I put it around my neck. In Romania the ultras movement developed very hard. At the beginning(’95, ‘96) there were no scarves. Dinamo, my club, hadn’t made any scarf, there were only some ridiculos rags, we couldn’t wear those. I was in a lot of pain, especially because I took contact with SuperTifo and by that magazine with the dream world of Italian ultras and especially because Steaua, our rivals had some scarves. Horrible ones, just with one side, written with paint but, still, they existed. I remember how I felt when I went at some incidents at the handball arena (God, what beautiful times!) and I managed to capture one scarf. It was very very long because I had to do some serious pulling to steal it. The scarf was very ugly. But I felt really bad because the Steaua fans had scarves with their club.
I remember how much I envied the older guys from the ultra’ block who had foreign scarves:Liverpool, Benfica, Bari, Koln, etc. I thought they were extraordinary but also very expensive. Then…surprise! I managed to buy one. The guy was a friend with a colleague from my high-school, a gypsy. I went to his home and when I saw the scarf I went mad, I paid the guy his money and bought it. I will remember it in all my life: my first scarf was with BoSparen Bank. The scarf wasn’t with a famous team but it was mine and, in addition, it was original. Nobody else had it. I remember how much Mihnea, an older guy, laughed when he saw it. Despite that, I was very proud of it. Then I remember somebody tried to steal it. I was at a home game, inside the ultra’ block and a drunk guy came, I was very lucky with the guys from the Nuova Guardia Group, who gave it back to me.
The age of Borsallino started, a shop specialized in sporting items in Bucharest. It was one of the kind in my city and I think in all the country.. It was kind of a Mecca to us. Later, I bought (again, very expensive) a green scarf with… Werder Bremen. What a crazy boy! I got laughed at again. Then I exchanged it with a scarf of Parma and then with one of AS Roma. A red-white one, very nice. I exchanged them, I never liked to collect them, I have another hobby: ultra’.
Then, the great moment: 1999. A crossing point for me. A year full of symbols. Then, in that winter filled with hope(Dinamo was about to win a new title after a big pause). In that pub in front of the stadium, filled night and day with enthusiastic young men. Then and there a group was born that was called very simple: Boys (a group in which I am a member still).. In one of those ordinary nights. In that pub filled with cigarette smoke and with plans entered Razvan (founding member of Nuova Guardia) and from a black bag he began to take them out. I couldn’t believe my eyes: bar scarves! Incredible!
I dreamt at this for 2 years. I couldn’t stand the commercial scarves made by the club, with different writings on them. I was dreaming, I was wanting some scarves that would make the aggressive and ridiculous messages written on the scarves disappear. And it happened, I couldn’t believe it. It was the first time in Romania . Obviously, I didn’t have money. It was kind of expensive in that pub. I was afraid the scarves all the scarves would sell. There were made only 100, with white and red stripes, 60 on black, 40 on gray. I asked Razvan to keep one for the next day so I can find some money.. In the end I raised money from the guys in the pub and I bought it.
I had managed to have the MOST BEAUTIFUL SCARF IN THE WORLD!!! With no exaggeration, that’s what I felt then and what I feel now, after 5 years. I chose the scarf with the background color black, maybe because I also liked Milan… The other guys wanted to buy gray but I liked this one.
Then many many things happened. Like my life, my scarf knew good and bad. That united us. It was very dirty, sweaty, soaked by tears, even by blood once. One time it was filled of tear gases; he was kissed many many times.. I washed him very carefully… I remember how nervous I was when I heard a guy washed it with hot water and the white transformed into pink…
What more can I tell you? That I even had sex with him at the neck, that I take him everywhere, at the mountain or it other places where it is cold. That I prefer that other bigger and warmer scarves. Do you want to know it saved me many times by covering my face at fights? yes, all these things are true. It even sustained my broken arm once in a train.
I go crazy when I hurry to go to the game, the guys are at the door, waiting for me and I can’t find my scarf. Where is it? What have I done with him? I forgot it anywhere?I scream to those from my house. When I open the closet I smile. There it was, I calm down: everything will be OK.
What can be more pleasant that coming down in front of your house and seeing your friends,waiting with sun glasses, a smile on their face and a beer. They, like you, have the same scarf. And then you understand: they think and feel the same way you do. You are with your people. You forget about everything! When you get down from the bus and it’s a cold but sunny morning. You are a bit confuse because of the fatigue and the alcohol. When you are on the empty streets of an unknown city. Those who have the same scarves like you begin to tell jokes, to loosen up at a pizza and a(another) beer). Is there anything else? Does anyone remember that he argued with his girlfriend, does anyone remember the nervous crises of their mother or that their boss sucks??? NO!! You are in your world.
With whom do you cry when your team has been stolen again? What makes you happy after you got beaten? “I still have the scarf….”. can anyone understand that? We all know the answer.
But we also know another thing: that no matter what happens our beloved scarf will never betray us. NEVER! And I personally know another thing and tell you with all my heart: I HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCARF IN THE WORLD!

But now I think about us all. The supporters! Of course, I can never strip my ultra clothes. I will always see the world, not only the sport, by the eyes of the one who sees a football match from the worst place of the stadium. By the eyes of the one who doesn’t need any comfort in following his team for thousands of miles. So, I am an ultras. I don’t have anything to apologize to the other supporters but today I will be their voice also.

This is the tough true, we are prisoners. The football is transforming, little by little in something else. And we can’t do anything about it. Invisible bars of a jail from the future are holding us in the place we like to be. Or we should I talk in the past tense? We liked to be?

When football was invented, and many years afterwards, other sports were in fashion. Tennis, rugby, cricket, box and later on, cyclism, were on the first pages of the newspapers. The players and especially the spectators at football were often looked as the bad side of society.. The workers, the urchins, the fools, people from bad neighborhoods etc.

As a sport, I have to admit football isn’t a big deal. Too many people are following a ball, too little ending of this commune effort. It also takes about 2 hours… And then, what’s its magic??? How was it possible to become the “king of sports” ??? The answer is simple but also painful. THE SPECTATORS. The people. Why painful? Because from this fact it will “die”. Now everybody (bankers, good fellows, family guys, women, babies, unborn children) are wanting to go to the “show”. I go crazy when I hear this: “show”. Didn’t the circus, theaters, opera, handball, basketball, formula 1, Disneyland etc. have been enough???

Why do you want to take our last joy? The last place where you can come and feel free? free to swear, free to spit, free to talk aloud, to drink with your friends, to live an adventure in an away trip.
Does everything has to be like you want it??? To seat on a chair, clap your hands, and maybe also to wear the right kind of perfume. To be unable to scream because next to you is a 9 year old girl. To be unable to swear because a woman on high heals can’t accept the rudeness. Do I really have to sell my house just to participate at a world cup? A ticket for a match has became so important that they have to write your name, address and 5th degree relatives on it. To be forced to seat on a warmed chair, to drink Pepsi and eat hot-dog. Is it possible to confuse the interior of a stadium with a mall?

WHERE IS THE FOOTBALL???

Are those the supporters? Dentists and doctors in biology with a salary of over 5 000 euro. What do they understand out of words like “faith”, “honor”, “passion”. These characters are just sad results of a system based on economy. They buy adidas scarves, shirt with an official bitches like Figo,Vieri, Beckham etc.

While these clowns are showed on TV and photographed by the media, our efforts aren’t given a look. What joy do the journalists think they bring us when they show silly images non stop. Big-belly guys with cheese hats, fat women painted on the face. Stupid clowns with masks and wigs which stand up to be seen by their family at home when the ball reaches the line or when it’s a corner.
It makes you sick. You have the sensation to turn off the TV. The mercantilism has touched every cell of the football phenomenon. Look for example at the football balls. They have became something horrible. Its like they are from those bad films with aliens. They are silver or bronze, with weird designs. Like everything is played on Playstation not on a real grass for real men.

About FIFA and UEFA what’s there more to say? They quarrel every year for power and taking over the income sources. Their last work of art: the world cup for clubs. Another competition destined exclusively to big clubs. Those awful machines which produce medals and money. What honor, what tradition has a club like Real Madrid? What connections do the “galactics” have with the old spirit of burg towns? Where is the local patriotism? Heroes born and raised in the spirit of a region. They all are ready to sell their soul for a salary that raises from 4 to 5 million euros.
Professional football! What does this actually mean? The official transformation of a passion in mercantilism.. In MONEY.

There are organized campaigns to take out the ultra’ movement from the sport. Very high prices, the impossibility of buying a ticket, especially in away trips. Special laws, a synonym for anti constitutional laws, a cover up for taking away of the human rights. This happens with the complicity of the press, who is very hungry for incidents. Photographing and telling about things that turn out to be small. Of course, the big dramas are always remaining untold. A proof about their “professionalism”.
But these officials are totally crazy. They don’t realize that by pushing the movement of organized supporters out of sport, you loose any form of control. The best example is , of course, the hooligan world. English, Dutch, Germans, more recently polish or Russians have nothing to do with the sport itself. They meet in fair fights and they kill each other. With no police, in isolated places.. It’s clear that they want an American model in sports. Inside the arena, peace and hot-dog, outside armed gangs of drug-addicts and mad men. Of course, it would be too much to ask the “kind gentlemen” to think on the long way, about the social aspect that results from their hunger for money. Money, as much as possible, unworked and as fast as possible.

Not to talk about the big abuses of the forces of order. Interdiction of going in away trips, interdiction of burning torches, interdiction of 100% legal messages…

We feel like ants squashed by a diabolic system. Doesn’t any one care? We are regarded are criminals??? Suddenly there is no mass-media, there is no justice, there are no laws???

1-What was your reasons for coming to Romania?
We wanted to get an impression on a new country and the situation there. It
was not just for the football thing, we’d also came for learning something
about the conditions the people are living in. For us as part (since
reunification) of a western-european country it was quite interesting of
getting a little bit in touch with the way of romanian everyday-life. Over
here it was seen (by our friends, families etc.) as a big adventure,
sometimes also risk, to travel to Romania, because nearly no-one usually
goes there for holidays or other reasons (so nobody knows much about Romania
going behind the level that the capital is Bucuresti), so this was kind of
strange to them. Also it was something to prove our ability to do such a
travel all by ourself’s (planning, financiating …), so it also was a test
for ourself to say “oh yes, we can do that, no big deal!”.

2-What was your impression about the country (Romania)?
In september 2002 we were travelling by car, in march 2003 by train. During
the ride with the car we realised that you need much time because of the not
so good conditions the streets are in, especially outside the
Bucuresti-region. It took 22 hours of getting there from our home town
Zwickau, spending over 50% of the time only for the track-part in Romania.
The landscape along the main street (Arad - Sibiu - Pitesti) is very
beautiful, if we weren’t that busy we would have stopped often to take same
photos of the scenery. As the driver you had to look for horse-wagons and
people (you call them gipsies - lol) on the street all the time, that is
quite different to western europe. When I did come back by train in the
spring there was more time to look at villages and so on situated beside the
railway-track. In the Arad-region the was much dirt and waste put everywhere
through the city and even the harvest-fields outside the town (it seemed
just like people don’t bother, dump their waste mindless). That’s unkown to
us, the germans (world champion in doing recycle projects etc. - 2nd lol)
have an eye for that kind of ‘killing’ nature. The whole infrastructure is
more developed over here, some of the smaller villages in Romania seemed not
to have proper asphalt-streets. The use of the train as public transport is
much more important (ticket-prices are not surprisingly in comparision
lower) than in Germany. The people itself were all very kind to us, we had
no mentionable problems with them. They (I can only speak for those
football-influented guy we got in contact with) are interested in many
things, open-minded, are good listeners and talkers (no senseless shit like
so often on other occasions). If you compare people of the same age from
here and Romania you get the result, that young people at an early age know
exactly how important it is to get focused on special personal aims (school,
job, family) to reach a certain standard of life. Here teenagers are mostly
fun-orientated, care less for their future than it should be, don’t ever
think about this fact (the mentality is “everything will go, switch of the
brain or the little part that’s left of it”). What surpised us was the
social rift between Romanians and Gipsies. Nobody here knows that so many
people in Romania have a problem dealing with Gipsies, considering them as
humans of second class. For the clothing-factor (which isn’t important in
my opinion) you can’t see a gap between Romanian people (I mean the
middle-class workers, being the most numberous group in society) to other
nationalities around. It’s nowadays all very close together, you wouldn’t
recognize a Romanian visitor in Germany or somewhere else just by his
outlook.

3-What was the first things that surprised you when you saw the ultras in
Romania? And what about the Romanian football?
Ultras: I was suprised that the movement is that organised and that some of
the groups had this much of members. At first I couldn’t believe that people
are that much in football, I thought they maybe had some bigger problems in
normal life to deal with. As a never-before-been-there-guy you have only an
idealistic picture (given by media etc.) of the country in your head, which
much differs to reality. Another thing unknown to me was the fact that there
is also this ethnical element in the minds of some of the supporters
(non-respect for Rapid-fans because of being Gipsies). Also an interesting
note is the paying of some ultra-groups for being active by the owners of
certain clubs. Strange thing, in Germany that’s impossible, because the
ultra-movement has been sucessfully brand-marked as a dubious kind of
fan-behaviour by authorities.
Football: It’s strange to see foreign players from Africa or Western Europe
in the Divizia A, because we can’t mention what got them there, what were their
reasons to go Romania, how they get paid and so on. The general qualitly
level of the football played is in my opinion something like lower 2nd,
upper 3rd league in Germany, but top-teams like Steaua, Rapid or Dinamo may
also could compete in the upper stands of the 2. Bundesliga for some time.
The lack of big names is equalised with the good education of the young
players.

4 - You saw many games in Romania, can you write a few words about the
following teams: -Steaua -Dinamo -Rapid -Poli Timisoara -Craiova. What other
teams impressed you? (It can be either in bad or in good)?

Steaua - seen only once at the game against Dinamo. Had two good
choreograhies and also quite good support of the fans. The block of
supporters was big and full, the chanting was various. This Derby was,
after the Derby in Belgrad from 04/2002, the best match I´ve attended in my
whole life - very impressive. Steaua Ultras have had a big part in that
to.
Dinamo - saw them in two times. First during a home-game against Otetul
Galati. In the first half their support wasn’t worth mentioning but in the
second half they had a capo in the front and about 2.000 people sung quite a
few good songs in italian-like style. This was really impressive, but also
the style with the Dinamo-banners and the clothing (sunglasses, styled hair)
reminded me a lot of Italy.
Craiova - at the match against Pitesti they showed off with about
1.600suppoerters. Very good support, a lot of transparents and „Doppelhalter
” (small flags with the sticks on the left and right end to be held up by a
person). They made us being witness to an interesting afternoon in Pitesti,
which should be a compliment.
Timisoara - we`ve heard a lot of them before. Saw them on a friday with 200
people at the match against Rapid Bucuresti. The number of Ultras attending
was impressive. Maximum respect for bringing this number of people that long
way to the capital on a weekday. Their support was durable, various and also
of a good volume. In addition they presented balloons and a flag spanning
the sector. Once again you can only say: good show, well done.
Petrolul Ploiesti - despite not having a chance of being promoted to the
first league there were about 70-100 supporters permanently creating some
atmosphere in the match against Foresta Falticeni. Respect!
5- What was the bad things you observed about the Romanian ultras?

To be honest, there was nothing quite negative that felt into my eyes when I
saw romanian ultras in one of the eight matches I´ve attended to date. You
have to consider that especially in case of financial background they are
far beyond most of others countries, so you don’t have the right to critize
to hard, even if there is a reason (which is not).

6-What style do the ultras from Romania have?

For me especially the ultras from Dinamo remembered me a lot of those from
Italy. Even not being the biggest expert in the italian scene I have to say,
that the support from Dinamo during the match against Steaua at Ghencea was
quite similar to an italian group, but also all of the others groups seen be
me had those italian touch in their support (exept the fans of Rapid, who
were more like turkish or greek supporters).

7-How do you think the Romanian ultras can grow in the future so they can
get at the level of other countries?

Difficult question to answer, because of being an outsider to the local
scene. There is a lack of internal information for me, but I would say that
the scene should not progress to grow into an westeuropean-like style or
even be compared to something like that. It’s different, that’s good.
Besides Poland Romania is the number one of the former eastern countries in
the field of creative support, ultralism etc.

8- Have you any words to give to the Romanian ultras?

Simply hold on to the unique style and the way of ultra life. Keep your
independence from authorithys (clubs, police etc.) and the feeling of being
a big unit. It’s important as well.
Deutschland

1-Do the ULTRAS have their own style or did they inspired themselves from
the Latin style (more exactly from the Italian one)?

At first I have to say, that in Germay despite the reunification 13 years
ago, there are still two parts in the country, east and west. In the west,
the ultras ae more the italian or southern european way. Eastern Germany is
more orientated in scenes like Hungary or Poland, so thats why here the
ultras are in addiction to making good atmosphere and do some respectable
choreograhies are also interested in the boxing/hooliganism-aspect. Mostly,
an own style is not yet to see in the groups identity, but thats maybe
beause the movement is not very old (the first remarkable groups appeared
not before 95-97). These groups are in the most cases not bigger than 200
people in extrem, normally much smaller.

2-How do the ultras groups get money for their actions (I’m talking about
something called auto finance) besides the periodically fees paid by the
members?

In Germany the groups are all indepent to the owners of the clubs. They don’
t take money. They earn money with selling their own suff (scarfs, photos
etc.) to the people. In Zwickau we also raise some funds (‚normal’ people
spend some cash for that) before doing a new choreography. Also there are
the normal monthly taxes for the members of the groups to gather some
financial background.
3- How is the police treating you? Are there similar laws like in Italy for
supporters? Tell us something about the repression going on In Germany. ..

The police in Germany is very strict. They don’t allow pyrotechniques at
all. Some people got banned from watching fotball in the whole country for
six years. The stadiums in the leagues 1 to 3 are mostly top-modern and
equiped with all kinds of surveillance stuff (video-cameras etc.) so that it
is easily to find the suspects. You don’t have any freedom in your own
stadium, what a pity. In that way you can’t really live an ultra life in
Germany. In the first league the cops also search busses etc. of known
ultra-groups. They pass them on the street and the passagers have to show
their identity cards and are being looked after.
4-Do the ultras fight also or this is a job only for hooligans? How do the
hooligans manage to meet so they can fight?
Generally, for the western part of Germany there is this rule: Ultra is
ultra, hool is hool. There are no fights between ultras-groups in the west.
In case of Hooligans there is no difference. In the stadiums are no actions
taking place, they met before/after the game outside and far away from
police on the „green hill”, there fixed fights take place between for
example 100 vs. 100 hools. The big names of each hool-group know each other,
so there is no real problem in doing a date on a free day or so. Just call
and make up a scene to mess your strength. In the east, the whole thing is a
little bit different, because here there are also some unfixed clashes (when
meeting in the same trains etc.) between the ultra-groups. Especially active
are the following groups: Ultras Dynamo, Red Kaos Zwickau, Diablos Chemie
Leipzig, Saalefront Halle and Inferno Lok Leipzig.

5-Are there many friendship relationships (so called gemmelagio) between
ultras?

In the western region there are only a few friendships known to me. The most
mentionable are: Boys Bielefeld - Mad Boyz Leverkusen, Munichmaniacs (Bayern
München) - Wilde Horde (1.FC Köln), Ultima Raka (Energie Cottbus) - Commando
Cannstatt (VfB Stuttgart).
In the East there is a big union of Ultras Dynamo - Ultras Gera - Red Kaos
Zwickau. Also Diablos (Chemie Leipzig) and Blue Generation (Magdeburg) have
a friendship, same thing with Saalefront (Halle) and Inferno Lok Leipzig
(VfB/Lok Leipzig). Ultras Dynamo have contacts/friendship with
Ultras/Hooligans from Katowice (Poland), but this thing is just developing
at the moment. Finally, since one year Red Kaos has friendly contacts to Red
Blue Devils from FC Videoton Szekesfehervar/Hungaria.

Special thanks to Ober-L and Mirko for the interview!