Hellas Verona F.C. - Supporters

Supporters

Apart from the many local fan clubs whose main role is (for example) to provide a meeting place for fans and friends and organize away trips, since the late 60s many Italian fans rely on organized stadium groups known as Ultras. The main goal is to choreograph fan support with flags, banners, coloured smoke screens, drums, and chanting in unison.

The best-known organized fan group of the team was called Brigate Gialloblù or "BG" (the "yellowblue brigades"). It came together in 1971 and no longer exists as such. Although to this day virtually all fans call themselves BG members when at the Bentegodi, today's hardcore BG group numbers about a few thousand members, mostly grouped under the name "Curva Sud". From producing flags large enough to cover the entire Curva Sud section (about a third of the stadium) to singing Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, the BG (and Hellas fans in general) are one of Italy's most respected supporters. They were responsible for introducing the British supporting style in Italy, putting aside drums and concentrating on catchy and powerful chants. The Brigate is made up of a collective of smaller supporters groups that have their own flags and position on the "Curva Sud", each with their own name. Some commemorate events, many are a play on words of the local Veneto dialect. The only officially recognised of these smaller groups, outside of Verona is based in London known as "Londra Stressata".

Their 'songbook' is Italy's largest, and increases every season with new songs (although at a slower pace than in the eighties, when new songs were appearing at nearly every home game). These songs are not only meant to support the club, but also to attack and insult the opponents. The BG are known to make themselves no limitations in this task. Everything, from physical defects to family tragedies, is used to make ironic songs meant to abuse an opponent player on the pitch or a rival crowd. Racist abuse of any kind has been largely used since the early eighties, resulting in the last seasons in several games played behind closed doors. However, only a small minority of Hellas supporters are militant fascist or openly racist. The majority use this kind of imagery and attitude only as a way to provoke, to mark their diversity from the rest of the crowds, and, for some, from the rest of the country. The fact that the same chants are used against white players who are also despised by the BG has not helped to prevent sanctions by the authorities, and the crowd is presently deeply divided about the use of such chants. Apart from racism, Verona chants can display a great amount of irony, also about themselves and their team.

The core ideology of the BG has always been "first the Brigate, then the Club". This has resulted in a relatively large group of hardcore, dedicated supporters, following the club everywhere without being particularly influenced by the often disappointing results of the team. After the relegation in the Serie C1 in the 2006/2007 season a stunning 10,000 season tickets were sold, almost 4000 more than in the previous season, when Piero Arvedi bought the club in September 2006 from Gianbattista Pastorello, ending the supporters' boycott campaign of the season ticket sales just a few days before its end.

Most Hellas fans have always kept football and politics apart, however right wing (Verona Front, Hellas Army) and left wing (Rude Boys) groups have always existed within the BG, as they do still among today's Hellas fans. Then and now, the wide majority of the fans are good-spirited and well behaved. However, small groups – among which also include right wing fascist extremists – aim to provoke trouble, cause public outrage and attract attention, regardless of the impact this has on the team.

Repeated incidents throughout the 1970s and 80s drew plenty of media attention and Verona was singled out as amongst the worst perpetrators. The founders and "hard-core" groups within the BG did what they could to keep younger members from emulating or joining the fascist extremists, yet decisive action clearly needed to be taken. After 20 years, in late 1991 the various BG groups unanimously decided to disband themselves completely in order to avoid the attempts of some judges who wanted to put the BG on trial for being a 'criminal organization'.

Today acts of violence are extremely rare and fans attend games to show their support for Hellas Verona. The large scale police repression of the Ultras movement following the murder of the police officer Filippo Raciti in Catania in February 2007 led to the disbanding of the organised 'Curva Sud' firm, along with the disappearance of the chant-launching supporters placed at the lower end of the Curva Sud. Chants are now started by the spontaneous initiative of every supporter.

Hellas Verona fans are twinned with the supporters of Fiorentina. The friendship dates back to the mid 80s, when several old viola crowd favourites (Antonio Di Gennaro, Luigi Sacchetti and Luciano Bruni) left Florence and won the scudetto with Hellas Verona. This long lasting relationship is a remarkable example of the 'unorthodox' attitude of the Hellas fans: Fiorentina supporters are largely left wing oriented, but this doesn't seem to bother both sides. In decades there have never been any tensions related to this difference in political views. They also have 'amicizie' (friendships) with Lazio, Triestina and Sampdoria. On international level the most important friendship is that with the Chelsea Headhunters, one of the oldest football friendships in the world, dating back to the second half of the seventies, when the visiting members of the Brigate were even allowed to show their away banner in the notorious Shed End of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge. A large number of the BG songs are taken from the Headhunters' repertoire, with translated and adapted lyrics, often in dialect. When Chelsea played Verona's archrivals Vicenza in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1997, a large number of Hellas Verona supporters was present in the away section of the Stadio Romeo Menti in Vicenza together with the Chelsea fans. Other international friendships are with the Ultras Sur of Real Madrid, the Brigadas Blanquiazules of Espanyol, the Aberdeen supporters in Scotland and the now disbanded Boulogne Boys of Paris Saint Germain.

The gialloblu are bitter rivals of their neighbors Vicenza, Brescia and Atalanta, and of the traditional 'big three' Juventus, A.C. Milan (who lost two titles, in 1973 and 1990, after being beaten by Hellas Verona in the last matches of these seasons) and Inter (a long lasting friendship was broken in the year 2000). Furthermore, AS Roma, Genoa C.F.C. and several teams from the South of Italy, most notably Napoli are considered rivals. Virtually all the matches between Verona and Napoli held at the Bentegodi in the eighties and nineties reached the national headlines because of the heavy abuse of Verona and Naples supporters.