Doing some research here. Can people give me some thumbnail sketches about which European and South American teams were (or are) identified with fascist or nationalist political movements? Thanks.
Colo Colo in Chile has been mentioned in the past in that way (with the fascist dictator).. I don't have any hard facts on that though.
Real Madrid was General Franco's pet team. I know the Brazilian national team was used by the military dictatorship as a propaganda tool (1968?)
I don't know much about Italian politics but I get the sense that Berlusconi regards AC Milan as just a part of his commercial empire, not a political tool. Though anyone more familiar with Italy can correct me on this.
Maybe if you stopped reading Barca: A people's Passion and looked at something fair and balanced you would realize that that isn't true...
Is it not true that Real was Franco's favorite club and that he used the success of the club for his political gains?
The main reason that Real were so built up in the press was because it got the attention of the rest of Europe at a time when Spain's economy was suffering since it wasn't included in the Marshall Plan. Don't forget that Barcelona has long been the symbol of Catalan separatism, terrorist groups such as ETA are closely related to the club. Not content with encouraging simple Spaniards to forget their peasant origins and blow up their brothers, they preach a gospel of terrible socialism.
Speaking of sepratists, I'm wondering if any of the Basque clubs like Athletic Bilbao or Alaves has been associated with the nationalist movement.
Maybe you should change the title of the topic to 'supportergroups linked to etc'. I've never heared anything about Chelsea links with fascists or nazi's except for the headhunters that is. Lazio seems to be full of racists throughout the club according to Clarence Seedorf... but I don't know how much his opinion is worth.
I really can't see the Chelsea connection. Teams in England generally don't have 'political' followings, not anymore at least.
-- Steaua Bucuresti was the Romanian secret police's team. They used to beat up every teams in Romania because of the secret police. I am not sure whether it was a political tool for the Ceausescu regime. I always thought that it was more of a toy for Ceausescu's son's. -- Berlusconi was accused of using AC Milan to springboard his political career. I am not sure how true it is. At least, he got alot of name recognition when AC Milan was dominating European football. Certainly, it helped his political career. But you can say the same about George W. even through he does not need MLB for name recognition. I am sure if Mark Cuban runs for office, people will say that about him.
Chelsea and Lazio have quite strong links with eacother, also connected to British right wing extremists Combat 18 who are more than just racist. Chelsea also have links with Feyenoord.
Thsts only supporters though. In Northern Ireland, clubs like Linfield etc have connections don't they?
A friend from Netherlands told me that the Ultra-Fans of Feyenoord Rotterdam all make "ssssssssss" when they play against Ajax. Because Ajax was owned by a jew (?) or had a lot of jewish players an the "sssssssssss"-tone imitates gas. Correct me if thats not true.
That's a very long story. First of all... the feyenoord hardcore are NOT nazi's. Ajax and jews is a very long story that I'm not going to explain. i've explained it a hundred times and usually after ten times people still don't get it. If you want to know about it send me a PM and I'll send an explanation to myself to so I can easily post it anywhere anytime.
The most recent Four Four Two (with Pires on cover) had a very good article about racism/facism/nationalism in all of the Polish leagues, top to bottom. It (the blatant/violent racism) was pretty horrific. A good read if you haven't read it already.
http://www.asroma-addict.com/en/RAU/curva_sud/Derby_For_Rome_1.htm Since the beginning, Lazio supporters were more relegated to the outsides and to the richer people of Rome (what a big contradiction that is), while Roma was the most popular one, in every sense of the word. They represented the heart of the Roman people, with a well gone wedding lasting till now and forever, and the myth of the Testaccio stadium (built in the heart of a popular roman quarter) is still alive. When Roma won the Championship in 1942, they went saying it was because of Mussolini, who during the war wanted a Roman team to win, forgetting Mussolini himself was a Lazio supporter. Of course I haven't been there, so I couldn't witness personally those years, but rumor has it rivalry was already there.