Foreign ultras are stirring up a nest of violence in Spanish football

At the end of August, in Monaco, the opportunity wanted Atlético de Madrid face him Celtiche Feyenoord and the lazio in the Champions League. A thousand kilometers away, the Police noticed: they were not worried about the game of the colchoneros, but rather the ultra fans of their rivals who were stirring up the hornet’s nest of football violence.

Under the control of the national panorama, the alert is usually activated when these radicals from foreign teams travel to any point in Spain. Although international cooperation and control of ticket sales manage to reduce violence to a minimum, cases continue to occur from time to time.

“When many people arrive without entering, it is another incentive to strengthen security, because conflicts can happen. These are complex devices, but incidents happen very little,” explained an inspector from in the General Information Commissioner’s Office (CGI) in an interview with EFE .has experience with these radical groups.

The latter, those provoked by one of the radical factions of Portuguese Benfica in the match against Real Sociedad at the beginning of November, including the launch of flares inside the stadium, or the six Dutch ultras of Feyenoord who was arrested for participating in a fight. in the VIP area of ​​the Metropolitan stadium.

It gets even more complicated when ultra diplomacy, international twinning and intergroup feuds come into play. This is the case, for example, of Atlético-Lazio next Wednesday, “marked in red” by Information agents because it is expected to be “hot” in the streets.

The reason? Atlético Front maintains good relations with Curva Sud, the radical followers of AS Roma, and Ultra Sur, of Real Madrid, is allied with Ultras Lazio, known historically as ‘Irriducibili’. “This will be the most difficult game (of the Atleti group) so far, because the ultras from Roma can show up and those from Lazio will come with the intention of causing trouble. They will try to find Madrid in any way possible. ” said the inspector.

Radicals, he pointed out, are part of a “dark world” where ideologies set the course, but where sporting rivalry and hatred prevail. That is why the members of the Frente Atlético and the Ultras Lazio, despite being far to the right, are at odds with each other.

From CGI, they assume the Anti-Violence Commission will declare the match high risk and a large police force will be deployed to control the nearly 3,000 Lazio fans who will have tickets for the match – including those traveling without of this – since the radicals of Curva Sud or Ultra Sur who could join the party.

Slight uptick in disputes

The Spanish ultras, a mass of almost 10,000 people, “so far does not create a social alarm” in the national territory despite the fact that the number of violent incidents has increased in recent years, assured the police official.

The last two seasons resulted in 80 and 87 altercations respectively, while so far this season there have been around twenty, which represents “a small uptick.” “But we cannot compare it to what is happening in other parts of Europe, where there are occasional stabbings and murders.

This is due, he assured, to the fact that the Police, the judges and the League are in the same boat: intolerance. “It’s a hidden statistic, but almost every weekend we avoid altercations,” he points out.

Far from the rise of radical groups after the 1982 World Cup or the deaths of Guillermo Alfonso Lázaro, a 13-year-old boy who lost his life as a result of a flare in Sarriá in 1992, and of Aitor Zabaleta, a youth. follower. of the Royal Society who was stabbed 25 years ago outside the Vicente Calderón.

“The ultra movement itself is on the decline, but we are not spared from the possibility that any day, in any fight, we will have bad luck,” the police official warned.

This refers to cases like that of Jimmy, the ultra of Deportivo de La Coruña who died in 2014 in a fight against Atlético Front, or the fight between the ultras of Numancia and Cornellá on May 27, where one of the He was involved in a coma for several months. These are separate events, but they require close monitoring of the radicals.

The ‘dracas’, a diversion

A wooded area outside Madrid, twelve against twelve, with no weapons but knuckles and over a minute of action. This is how Atlético Front and Feyenoord’s two radical factions, Rotterdam Jongeren Kern and Firm FIIIR, faced off before the match their teams played at the beginning of October.

The Police are aware of this ‘draca’, but nothing can be done: without a complaint, there is no possible investigation. However, this phenomenon, which comes from countries where the ultra scene is more developed, such as Poland or Russia, does not completely worry the agents.

“It’s funny for them, they’re not groups that get together because they hate each other. In Spain, it’s very few and it’s not something that worries us too much, but on the day someone was seriously injured and reported it, we will have to take the appropriate measures. to eradicate them,” said the inspector.