The Ultras

Over the last 50 years, the ultras have become the most widespread, outspoken and spectacular form of football fandom across the globe. Whilst the ultras phenomenon began in Italy, then spread across Southern Europe into Northern Europe, it is now the dominant style of fandom in North Africa, South East Asia and East Asia and is spreading into North America and Australia. This spectacular style of fandom has been spread through global media, social media and increased travel, where fans can view, engage and interact with a range of fans from across the globe and bring various local dimensions to their fandom. This volume brings together a range of articles about the ultras' style of football fandom. It is designed to be an introduction: a first account of ultras for the uninitiated. What follows are analyses and accounts of ultras in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Israel, North America, Australia, Indonesia and Croatia. Not only does this volume demonstrate the prevalence of the ultras' style of fandom across the globe, it shows how football becomes an important cultural arena to see the intersections of globalization and localism.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Mark Doidge is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Brighton, UK. His research focuses on political activism among football fans across Europe, particularly anti-racism and supporting refugees, and the broader political identities associated with football fandom. He is the author of Ultras: The Passion and Performance of Contemporary Football Fandom (2020), Collective Action and Football Fandom (2018) and Football Italia (2015). Martin Lieser is an independent scholar and Senior Concept Manager at a Munich-based sports marketing agency. Before transitioning into business, he pursued a PhD in Japanese Studies from the University of Vienna, Austria. Throughout his studies his research has focused on sports culture and more particularly on the social and cultural dimensions of football fandom in Japan.

Introduction Mark Doidge and Martin Lieser 1. Openers, witnesses, followers, and 'good guys'. A sociological study of the different roles of female and male ultra fans in confrontational situations Bérangère Ginhoux 2. Polish ultras in the post-socialist transformation Rados-aw Kossakowski, Tomasz Szlendak and Dominik Antonowicz 3. Ultras in Turkey: othering, agency, and culture as a political domain Yämur Nuhrat 4. 'The East' strikes back. Ultras Dynamo, hyper-stylization, and regimes of truth Daniel Ziesche 5. The (Re)Constitution of football fandom: Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem and its supporters Netta Ha-Ilan 6. Ultras in Indonesia: conflict, diversification, activism Andy Fuller and Fajar Junaedi 7. 'Supporters, not consumers.' Grassroots supporters' culture and sports entertainment in the US Markus Gerke 8. Social agency and football fandom: the cultural pedagogies of the Western Sydney ultras Jorge Knijnik 9. Carnival supporters, hooligans, and the 'Against Modern Football' movement: life within the ultras subculture in the Croatian context Benjamin Perasovi- and Marko Mustapi- 10. Ethnography and the Italian Ultrà Matthew Guschwan