ultras, hooligans… What are the differences between these groups of supporters?

Often confused, ultras and hooligan movements respond to different organizations and dynamics.

With the incidents which marked the return to stadiums after the pandemic, since the start of the 2021-2022 season, supporters have found themselves in the spotlight. Ultras, hooligans… All the terms were used to talk about the perpetrators of the excesses. But they designate different movements of supporters who do not experience their support in the same way. Overview of the various types of fans, in and outside the stands.

Ultras and club support

The majority of ultras group together into supporters’ associations in order to show their support for their club. “The ultras liven up the stadiums, give their opinion on the club, on the evolution of football, so they are full players in the life of football”, explains Nicolas Hourcade, sociologist specializing in the world of football and supporters. Often gathered in a stand, the ultras bring the stadium to life during the meetings with their songs and their encouragement, and prepare the visual entertainment like the tifos.

The movement arrived in France in the early 1980s, with Commando Ultra in Marseille, the first group recorded, in 1984. But it was born at least two decades earlier on the other side of the Alps, in Italy. That’s where the name comes from, with the Ultrà Tito Cucchiaroni from Genoa. The term would be a reference to the ultraroyalists who, at the time, achieved their ideas through violence. The meaning “goes further than” was also put forward, in image to those who go further than traditional supporters in supporting their club.

The ultras have a distant relationship with violence, which they can sometimes demonstrate. “As they are in competition with opposing ultras, or in conflict with the leaders of their club, or even the leaders of the League, they sometimes resort to violence considering that it may be acceptable to resolve their conflicts”notes Nicolas Hourcade.

Hooligans and violence

Hooliganism and hooligans refer to another type of supporters, gathered in informal gangs, who place violence at the heart of their practices. “Hooliganism encompasses a set of phenomena which have the common point of taking place in connection with a sporting event, in particular football matches, and which involve forms of physical or verbal violence, but also acts of delinquency” , defines Ludovic Lestrelin, sociologist specializing in football supporters.

In France, the term spread to the general public in the 1980s. “This follows the Heysel drama, everyone is watching it live on TV,” says Nicolas Hourcade. “There were 39 deaths, initially due to violence by English supporters, who were called hooligans at the time. So the term became associated with violence by supporters.”

Nicknamed the “English disease” in the 1960s, hooliganism has long helped define football across the Channel. Before the creation of the Premier League, in 1992, and a pricing policy on tickets changed the face of the stands and eradicated the “hools”. In France, violent incidents punctuated certain matches between the 90s and the end of the 2000s, but have since become rarer, and the hooligans have moved away from sports venues.

Sometimes blurred differences

The border is nevertheless increasingly porous between the two movements, which are no longer so clearly differentiated. “The difficulty is that the behaviors designated by the term are sometimes, even quite often, adopted by individuals who do not define themselves as hooligans,” assures Ludovic Lestrelin. A gap has therefore been created between the notion and the term as it is used in the world of supporters.

In France, the confusion also comes from the concomitant discovery of the two terms. “It was really in the 1980s that supporter violence developed, with acts of hooliganism. And it was also during this period that ultra supporterism developed, which fueled the confusion”notes the researcher. “These are two different worlds, which do not have the same logic, which do not pose the same problems in the same places, but which are not so separate”he concludes.