Romanian Ultras movement

Here is an interview we took from 2 of our German friends who recently visted Romania to make an idea about the situation here(it was at the end of 2003). We took the liberty to ask them also something about the scene in Germany. I hope that you too can get an idea from this interview, and, who knows, maybe you decide to come to visit one day… If you decide to come to Romania let us know. You are our guests!

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!