‘Brigate Verde…a terrible beauty is born': an exploratory examination of the social leadership of the Green Brigade

ABSTRACT

The UEFA Europa League group stage clash on 24 October and 7 November 2019 between Celtic FC of Glasgow and SS Lazio of Rome offers fascinating insight into ultra social movements as forms of leadership. This exploratory research paper conceptualizes this tie as an Event that provides both a pivotal point of cross-cultural reflection on ultra fan groups as emergent social movements, and a means for the examination of forms of social leadership in contemporary society. In such terms, the paper initiates a critical consideration of The Green Brigade, a self-styled ultra fan group of Celtic FC as an emerging social movement, characterizes the group in terms of the differentiated ultra/ultraS binary, begins to qualitatively address the question as to levels of support for the group among the wider constituency of Celtic supporters, and as such, tentatively explores the groups’ leadership and organizational characteristics. The research concludes that a creative and action-oriented leadership style can be discerned. While organizational characteristics require further examination, intimations of a logic of development emerge.

Acknowledgments

This research project was conducted in accordance with the University of the West of Scotland research ethics code of practice and as such the voluntary participation and anonymity of respondents, and the confidentiality of the data is categorically assured.

The author would like to express gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers who provided critically challenging but highly supportive insights that facilitated key refinements to the research paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Quotation engraved below the statue of Jock Stein at Celtic Park.

2. The event is considered ‘ … something shocking, out of joint….[an] effect that seems to exceed its causes…the disclosure of being – of the horizon of meaning which determines how we perceive and relate to reality … the surprising emergence of something new which undermines every stable scheme ’. Zizek, Event, 2–6.

3. Social movements are defined as ‘a collectivity acting with some degree of organization and continuity outside institutional channels for promoting or resisting change in the group, society, or world order of which it is a part’. Testa and Armstrong, Football, Fascism and Fandom, 70. The work also draws on four core activities of social movements in terms of; framing; narration; mobilizing; and organizing. Boyd et al., ‘Mobilizing and Organizing for Large Scale Change in Healthcare’.

4. Testa and Armstrong Football, Fascism and Fandom, 2; Jones. Ultra, Xvi.

5. As the test to the current study, the Irruducibili would represent a group that built on an existing ideological orientation of the far right among some Lazio fan groups. However, it should be noted that the level of support for right-wing politics among the wider Lazio support is contested with sizable anti-fascist and libertarian sub-groups now evident. See Laziale e Antifascista.https://www.facebook.com/LazialeAntifascista.https://www.facebook.com/Lazioeliberta.

6. For example, FC St Pauli of Hamburg, FC Genoa, and AC Livorno in Italy, Standard Liege FC in Belgium and perhaps Liverpool FC in England.

7. Subsequent to the event, the Irriducibili dissolved and rebranded as ‘Lazio Ultras’. https://thelaziali.com/2020/02/29/irriducibili-disband-ultras-lazio/.

8. Testa and Armstrong. Football, Fascism and Fandom; Jones, Ultra.

9. ‘Bhoys’ for example are a distinctive Celtic fan group. Watt. ‘Exclusive Interview with “Bhoys” fan group’.

10. Waiton, ‘Criminalizing songs and symbols in Scottish Football’.

11. Kelly and Bradley, ‘Celtic FC’s 1967 Lisbon Lions’.

12. Ibid.

13. Anonymous Reviewer.

14. Notably, the fractious nature of the clash might be considered the kind of spirited event that both fan groups might lament as being increasingly lost to football in its alleged progressive commercialization.

15. It would be humorously recounted that the orchestrated regaling of Fascism in Glasgow city centre was met in real time by a rather bemused set of Glasgow daytime shoppers and the full significance of this provocation became evident in the unfolding social media coverage and the rejoinder by The Green Brigade later at the match itself.

16. It would be remiss not to acknowledge the more formal outcome of the event in football terms which was that Celtic won both games by a score line of 2–1 in each case, made notable by the means in which the victories were achieved, defeating a very strong Lazio side through resilience and skill who went on to mount a realistic challenge to become champions of Italy in that season. This dual victory was made more remarkable perhaps in that Serie A, the Italian football league, is widely viewed in football circles as a top European league and as such a significantly more challenging championship than the Scottish Premiership.

17. The issue of where the clubs get their support geographically is notable in that for fans of AS Roma, the Laziale would be the burini, the peasants from beyond the city, and for fans of Rangers FC, Celtic fans would be similarly considered historical interlopers. Some estimates put the fan base within the city of Rome as overwhelmingly for AS Roma, while the contest over whether Glasgow would be representatively ‘Green or Blue’ remains contested although recent voting intentions provide an interesting account of Glasgow as pro-independence which might provide some indication of an urban/suburban differentiation. However, a key difference in this kind of comparison is that the Roman example relates more directly to Rome itself while the ‘old firm’ might be considered more a national and indeed international set of phenomena. Ricatti. ‘La Roma: Soccer and Identity in Rome’.

18. Jones, Ultra, 380.

19. Humour is arguably an important part of ultra culture and its ideologically underpinning is certainly worthy of consideration. However, the differentiation of the issue should not be overstated as both groups continue to display humorous and indeed carnivalesque characteristics. A recent example of The Green Brigade’s humour might lie in the comparison of the Celtic hierarchy and Chemical Ali in January 2021 in a protest banner outside Celtic Park during heated and fractious times with the team’s performance falling below expectations and the club hierarchy’s perceived inaction on the issue. While the media driven reporting of the event might be considered largely sensationalist it is interesting to note that the rather poorly executed summersault celebration by Celtic’s Olivier Ntcham in Rome after his winning goal was reported by Marca, the Spanish sports new outlet as further critical commentary on an upside down Il Duce! See ‘Ntcham responds to racial abuse from Lazio fans by recreating the death of Mussolini’, Marca, November 8, 2019, https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2019/11/08/5dc54e9322601dbe4a8b45ef.html.

20. Burrell, ‘Modernism, Post-Modernism and Organizational Analysis’ (25): ‘…all organizations are unalike in terms of surface features, but are alike in so far as one can understand their underlying dynamics. They are all-unalike and all-alike at one and the same time’.

21. https://thecelticstar.com/unlike-the-green-brigade-not-every-celtic-fan-has-a-phd-in-irish-history/.

22. Testa and Armstrong, Football, Fascism and Fandom; Jones, Ultra.

23. Italy’s political and ideological rupture left largely unaddressed after WWII in comparison to the denazification of Germany that perhaps remerged more explicitly in the wake of Tangentopoli and the subsequent ‘clean hands’ campaign.

24. Jones, Ultra.

25. Testa and Armstrong, Football, Fascism and Fandom, 54.

26. Kassimeris. ‘Fascism, separatism and the ultràs’.

27. Newell, ‘Italian politics’.

28. Defence of the local, attachment to the ‘Bell Tower’. Jones, Ultra, xi.

29. Testa and Armstrong, Football Fascism and Fandom.

30. This shift to the Right in the political orientation of ultra groups can also be attributed to a conscious programme initiated by right-wing political movements. Jones, Ultra.

31. Ibid., 48–49.

32. Ibid.

33. Testa and Armstrong, Football Fascism and Fandom.

34. Foot, Calcio.

35. Joern and Havelund, ‘Ultras in Denmark’.

36. Spaaij and Vinas, ‘Passion, politics and violence’.

37. Ford, ‘English Ultras?’.

38. Nuhrat, ‘Ultras in Turkey’.

39. Gutu, ‘Casuals’ culture’.

40. Kossakowski, Szlendak and Antoniwicz, ‘Polish ultras in the post-socialist transformation’.

41. El-Zatmah, ‘From Terso into Ultras’.

42. An example is the error spelling ‘Celtc’ in an ultra banner at Hibernian in 2007 that elicited the derisory response ‘thick as pigs shit’ that would appear to reproduce stereotypical echoes of an anti-Irish prejudice in Scotland but in this context produced by fans of Edinburgh’s and indeed Scotland’s quintessential but much less successful Irish catholic-origin football team. As such, this response was more akin to a rivalry between Scotland’s two major cities which is evident but largely overshadowed by sectarian issues in Scotland. Personal communication.

43. Cosgrove, ‘Let the Drums Beat Louder’.

44. Notably the fine imposed on the club was recouped in excess by The Green Brigade but this did not dispel the formal club hierarchy and team managers’ criticism of the group over the issue.

45. A line from the Irish ballad ‘The Foggy Dew’.

46. It is important to reiterate that the sampling technique employed for the primary research was exploratory and the intent of the research was thus to nurture exploratory themes that might help begin the process of broader exploration of the issues. As such, the themes that emerge provide guidance but are rigorously underscored by the exploratory intent of the work. The data are derived and driven by a thematic post-structural postfoundational philosophical stance and any claim towards ‘theory-neutral data’ or generalizability are categorically eschewed. The themes emanating from the primary research are both exploratory and retroductive and presented in a manner that allows for the expressionof emergence. The theoretical frameworks as such provide a ladder to the emergence of the themes.

47. Boyd et al., ‘Mobilizing and Organizing for Large Scale change in Healthcare’.

48. Ancona et al., ‘In Praise of the Incomplete Leader’.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Having said that there are some instances where ‘Old Firm’ fan groups would converge such as in terms of respect for the passing of key club figures – for example, Billy McNeil and Walter Smith.

52. Further analysis would be required on the richness and nuance of fan identity and typology with particular reference to Celtic FC.

53. Respondent 70; Respondent 41.

54. Respondent 65.

55. Respondent 35.

56. Respondent 26.

57. Respondent 59.

58. Protest against the annual poppy armistice commemoration.

59. Respondent 70.

60. Respondent 65; Respondent 30.

61. Respondent 28.

62. Respondent 22.

63. Respondent 58.

64. Respondent 7.

65. Respondent 1; Respondent 2; Respondent 17; Respondent 25.

66. Respondent 77.

67. Respondent 42.

68. Respondent 25.

69. Respondent 32.

70. Respondent 19.

71. Respondent 44.

72. Respondent 35.

73. Respondent 40.

74. Respondent 46.

75. Respondent 52.

76. Respondent 56.

77. Respondent 55.

78. Doige and Leiter, ‘The importance of research on the ultras: introduction’.

79. It is taken from W.B. Yeats’ poem Easter, 1916. See Larrissey, W.B. Yeats, 85.