Familiarity breeds contempt

 

Familiarity breeds contempt

The coming week will see the resumption of the Champions League Group Stages and all Celtic supporters will be hoping for a positive result against Lazio. The Italian club have had an indifferent start in the league, winning two of their first six matches and currently lying eleventh in the table. They have a tough match on Sunday away to high flying AC Milan and hopefully that takes a bit out of their legs before the trip to Glasgow. They lost 2-1 home and away to Celtic in the Europa League in 2019 so will know to expect a tough match at Celtic Park.

The ties between the two clubs were competitive on and of the park. Lazio’s ultra groups have a reputation for extreme right-wing leanings, whilst those of Celtic are diametrically opposed to such a world view. Indeed, at Celtic Park in 2019, a banner depicting the death of Italian wartime leader, Benito Mussolini, was flaunted in the stadium along with the words ‘Go the way of your leader.’ It was a predictable occurrence, as were the attempts of Lazio ultras to attack Celtic fans in Rome at the return leg.

Lazio, as a club have tried hard in recent years to shed the reputation its ultra groups have gained for it as a fascist and antisemitic club. The main Lazio ultras group over the past thirty years, the ‘Irriducibili,’ disbanded or rebranded (take your choice) after arrests, banning orders and a storm of condemnation of some of their more demonstrably racist actions. The group released a rather pompous and self-aggrandising statement which read…

“As with all things in life, there is a beginning and, inevitably, an end. There is a time for everything, even for those fantastic, glorious stories; sooner or later, the curtain falls. The important thing is to have lived these stories, as protagonists or even lions. Experiencing it dangerously, without regrets, and without remorse. There have been exciting and difficult moments, happy and sad days. It all started on 18 October 1987, when, in a quiet match between Lazio and Padova, a banner with ‘Irriducibili’ appeared on the steps of the Stadio Olimpico. 10 meters of fabric, white writing, and a light blue background. Little would have thought that this name would soon become our symbol; our gauntlet to the whole world. But too much blood, too many banning orders, and too many arrests have occurred. So, after 33 years, we have decided to disband the group. From today, there will be a new dawn for the Curva Nord. For the first time, only one banner will be present in the stands, behind which all the Lazio supporters will be gathered: Ultras Lazio. We have the same desire as ever, the same enthusiasm and adrenaline.”

Fascism in Italian society has deep roots and much as Lazio are the most easily identifiable fan base with a problem with far-right racism, they are by no means alone. To their credit, the club, Italian FA and authorities are targeting the more strident racists on the terraces. Earlier this year a Lazio fan attended a game with a shirt bearing the name ‘Hitlerson’ and the number 88. (symbolising the eighth letter of alphabet: HH-Heil Hitler.’) The fan and two others who were performing the ‘Hitler salute’ were identified and banned for life. Europe seems to have been more plagued with this sort of idiocy in recent years as the refugee crisis intensified. We know about the more obvious displays of far-right iconography in Italy but it goes on in Russia, Serbia, Israel, Poland and in other places.

Are we in Scotland free from this scourge? We have seen a growth in the ‘ultra’ movement in Scotland over the past 15 or 20 years to the degree that even smaller clubs down the leagues can boast ultra groups. Ultras here though are for the most part about supporting their team and winding up the opposition fans. Few are involved in any overtly political activities. The exception being of course those who follow Celtic and Rangers.

Celtic’s domination of Scottish football in the early 20^th century saw some among the footballing public looking for a team to dethrone the ‘Irishmen.’ Rangers developed their identity in direct opposition to Celtic and grew big on the back of it. It could be said that had Rangers not existed, Celtic would be pretty much the same club they are. Had Celtic not existed, Rangers would have been a very different animal. The seemingly symbiotic relationship of the ‘old firm’ was never all it seemed. Celtic certainly needed rivals but it could just as easily have been Queen’s Park or Partick Thistle who developed into the ‘big’ club to challenge Celtic in those early years. The Rangers’ support grew partly on the back of migration from Ulster to the shipyards of the Clyde. Their more strident attitudes grew too in those years between the wars and  they morphed into an exclusivist champion of Protestantism and unionism.

A century later the same attitudes and opinions are still occasionally aired at Ibrox despite the world having moved on considerably. Much of it is empty rhetoric spouted by folk who never really took the time to read up on the history they bang on about. But can we say in all honesty that the Union Bears are a far-right ultras group in the manner of the now defunct Irriducibili? It’s an interesting question. Some feel they simply exist to oppose everything the Celtic ultras support and support everything they oppose. Thus, the Palestinian flags flown by some Celtic ultras are matched against the odd Israeli flag at Ibrox. The fondness among Celtic fans for left-wing German club, St Pauli, is matched by some Rangers fans infatuation with their city rivals HSV Hamburg. It seems as if so much that Rangers’ ultras do is in knee jerk reaction to Celtic.  

Some of the iconography on their tifo displays and indeed in graffiti around Glasgow apes some of the right-wing stuff we see from more seasoned racists abroad. The ‘Bill the Butcher’ tifo recently brought much opprobrium their way and went down like a lead balloon. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt, but you get inured to this sort of tosh and start to see it as a wind up rather than seriously racist. Maybe though we should take a step back and think about what is acceptable in 2023. Freedom of speech is well and good; hate speech is not.

At the end of the day, I want Celtic to succeed at home and in Europe. I don’t want Celtic’s success to be measured against anyone else. The nature of Scottish football means that should there be no entity playing out of Ibrox, as almost happened in 2012, then Celtic would be far too big for the league and would stroll it every year. We’d all get bored with that and look for ways to change it. In terms of footballing rivalry in Scotland’s unique context, it’s not enough to succeed; someone else has to fail. That has been the way of it here for 135 years. Unless the European dimension of football expands to encompass the big clubs in smaller leagues, it will doubtless remain that way.

As Lazio head for Glasgow, here's hoping the minority of fascists who follow them stay at home. Football is the people's game and means so much  to so many. It is far too important to allow it to be hijacked by racists. The good fans at every club need to ensure it isn't.