You don’t run, not when you’re with us… You stand your ground and fight!

Pete Dunham in: Green Street Hooligans, Universal Pictures, 2005

 

05.06.2016, Brasilia, CdR Flamengo meet with SE Palmeiras for the 6th round of the First Division of the Brazilian National Championship. As Rio’s Maracana Stadium can not be used for football matches, the Rio teams have to look for substitutions until October and Brasilia’s Mane Garrincha Stadium offers such an alternative. As it is hardly used and was a World Cup 2014 stadium, it should be an arena of the highest standards, offering the best conditions for everybody. And as Flamengo and Palmeiras have quite a big following, it should also offer a great atmosphere. The conditions for a football feast could not have been any better. But, it came differently. During half time, the Torcida Organizada Mancha AlviVerde (Palmeiras) tried to attack Flamengo’s Torcidas Organizadas Raca Rubro Negra and Jovem Fla, especially as Raca Rubro Negra are supposed to be a major rival of Mancha Verde. The result were one dead Flamengo supporter (who died in hospital after he was attacked with a fire extinguisher during the riots and a superior force of Mancha Verde affiliates jumped up and down on him), 30 arrests, tear gas in the stadium’s corridors which spread onto the stands and the field afterwards and definitely a lot of people who would never go to a match again. The 70 000 capacity stadium saw an excellent crowd with approximately 54 000 spectators and a handful ruined it for everybody else.

So, what are these Torcidas Organizadas? Their roots of most of these firms go back to the late 1960ies and early 1970ies, when the Ultras movement had its first peak in Italy, eventhough the oldest of them, TUSP, was founded in 1939 (and dissolved in 1995, where most of its members joined the Toricda Organizada Independente) and Europe’s oldest was founded in 1950, the Torcida Split. With the rise of hooliganism in the 1960ies, the Ultras wanted to differ from them and not be associated with violence, but with a colourful support inside the stadiums. They also wanted to have a word on their club’s board and when AS Roma‘s Ultras released their famous manifesto called “Against the Modern Football” in 1999, it was copied by most Ultras groups within Europe.

In Brazil, things are a bit different. When most of these (fan)clubs were founded, Brazil was a military dictatorship and the state suspected subversive actions within them. So right from the beginning they had a difficult stand, facing police opression, combined with the traditional rivalery of other clubs. These rivaleries continued to spread among their supporters’ clubs as well and as football has always attracted some violent elements in the stands (e.g. Millwall FC‘s supporters have a legacy of violence that goes back to the 1920ies without any interruptions, especially when it comes to matches against West Ham United or Charlton Athletic, and there are reports about football unrests from the 19th century), this also applied to Brazil. Matches between (not only local) rivals are are called “classico” (a classic match) and besides the ordinary football fan, who wants to see a good match and a win over the rivals, the Torcidas Organizadas gathered themselves inside the stadiums in order to show superiority to the other team by choreography, chanting, singing and if nothing else helps to achieve victory, by trying to drive the “invader”, who has come to take points from their holy ground, out of the stadium by using violence. The same applies to travelling fans, who “invade” the venue in the away section and manifest them there as their own territory, which needs to be defended and eventually expanded. The police is seen as an obstacle by both sides, as they are there to seperate them (and of course to protect the ordinary fan from eventual physical harm) and not to encourage any physical violence, but quite often the police force is involved in it. So these Torcidas Organizadas, sometimes also called Torcidas Uniformizadas (as they have a clothing of their own), can be seen as some kind of mixture between the classic Ultras and the classic hooligans.

But there is more to that. While football hooliganism was brought under control by heavy policing and these firms organize their clashes in some fields or woods or on the street somewhere far away from the stadiums, the Ultras declared themselves as non-violent and would only fight in order to defend themselves, their flags or eventual the colours of the club. What sense does it make to defend colours? They don’t give anything in response. Well, only someone with the mind of an Ultra can respond to that. Still, violence among the Ultras is not uncommon, as there is some kind of sport between the various groups in oder to steal the other’s flags or banners. If the banner or flag of one group has been nicked, this group has to dissolve itself – so says the unwritten codex of honour. In Brazil, the Torcidas Organizadas follow the banner stealing as well and they exhibt their trophies on the internet, very often in combination with firearms and poses to show how strong they are, or pretend to be. That this adds more oil to the fire should be clear. The situation is heating up more and more and in the end matchday violence is not limited to matchdays anymore. Meanwhile it can happen that someone wearing a shirt, which identifies him as a sympathizer of a certain supporters group, is assaulted on the street out of nowhere. Death is a risk someone is taking when associating himself with a Torcida Organizada. Still, there are plenty of men and women taking up that risk as they consider that being part of a group is  more important than life itself.

Some of these Torcidas Organizadas have been linked and involved with other crimes as well, not with football violence only. As the case of the execution of eight members of the Torcida Organizada Pavilhao Nove (supporters of SC Corinthians Paulista) from 2015 shows, drug related crimes can also be part of their activities. That does not mean that everyone who is a member of a Torcida Organizada is also a criminal, but a relation between (street)crime and these organisations can show up every now and then. In March 2016, the Sao Paulo state attorney Paulo Castilho compared them with street gangs who would spread fear and violence. Actions by the state to get this problem under control have not helped so far. When the State of Sao Paulo tried to prohibit the Torcidas Organizadas after what was called “The Field Battle of Pacaembu” in 1995, which found 110 injured and one dead, it failed. Mancha Verde and the others continued in the underground, just not using their gear anymore. So after a while the state declared them as legal again by imposing some other actions. If someone wanted to enter a stadium in Sao Paulo wearing some Torcida Organizada clothing, this person had to register himself with the Football Federation of Sao Paulo, FPF, and the police had a list of these people. That lowered the level of violence in the stadiums of Sao Paulo, but it did not erase it.

Football is the national passion of Brazil. There is hardly any walk of life which is not touched by it in a way, even if it is only a little bit. But the stadiums are getting to be more empty for various reasons: the ridiculous kick off times (11:00, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00, 21:50 are the main kick off times dictated by the almighty Rede Globo TV station), extraorbitant ticket prices (they vary between 40R$ to 140R$ for an average place on the terraces, considering that the minimum salary is 880R$ for the year 2016) and the risk of violent actions by the Torcidas Organizadas. When there are scenes like the Alagoas State Championship Final 2016, the Ceara State Championship Final 2015, the Sao Paulo State Championship Final 2013, or the already mentioned confrontation in 1995, continue, then the numbers of spectators in Brazilian stadiums will continue to drop to zero. And what kind of atmosphere does football have, when nobody is watching anymore and only violent thugs appear in the stadiums and on TV?