Interview Ultras Bohemians

Interview Green Lions für Fanzine Ultras Bohemians im Mai 2006

– How do you see the Austrian fan scene?
The Austrian first league consists of 10 teams. Therefore nearly everyone knows each other. The next problem is, when your team has got a bad season it is very possible to fall down in the second division. This fact causes the damage of many good teams with good fans. On the other side clubs of small cities, sometimes only villages, enter the league. These teams do not have any tradition and therefore no fan scene. Some of this people who are running for success cannot come into the status of a realistic opponent. So, there are effectively only 4 or 5 really good fan curves in the first league, but this is not everything. Sometimes you can find very good scenes in the 3rd or 4th division. You may imagine that in Austria this is in the nowhere of football, but the fans there are often very idealistic and support there team very well (examples are Austria Salzburg – 4th division, Blue White Linz in the third division).

The most important problem we face in Austria, is, that there are often big financial supporters, who buy nearly the whole team in witch they want to invest. This causes troubles with our fan-mentality. These sponsors probably change the name of the club, take away the colours of the team, try to get off with fans like we are and make it therefore impossible for us to identify anymore with our team. This happened for example in Salzburg with Red Bull. Similar things you can find in Vienna (Austria MAGNA) and Pasching (small city near Linz).
In our club the single fan is still as important as he should be. Rapid Vienna knows that his fans are an important capital. The Block West (our curve) has got no real concurrent in creating choreographies, vocal support and the number of people in away games. There is no discussion (also not in other curves) that we are the number one and this is also the consequence of fan- loving club policy.
The number two is in the moment the curve of Sturm Graz (“Sektor 23-25”), followed by Austria Wien (“Westsektor”) and Wacker Tirol (“Nordkurve”).

– What restrictions are there for Fans? Are there differences between the first and the third division?
The restrictions became more in the last years. One very important reason for this is the fact, that Austria and Switzerland are hosts of the European Championship 2008. Similar to the German security concept the Austrian Government adapted the so called “security-police-law” in December 2005. One important chance is the implementing of a “Hooligan-register”. Personal data of fans, which attract attention in the stadium, are collected. These data should finally help the police to identify “problematic fans” soon in front of the stadium. During the Championship these fans will be contacted by the police and be teached how to behave during a football game. In Germany for example this register had the consequence that already the throwing of snowballs was followed by an entry.

The use of megaphones, drums, flags and banners is allowed, but the control at the stadium-entry becomes worse. The use of pyrotechnic materials, like Bengali fire or similar things can be very problematic. For example the use of lightning sticks is strictly forbidden and can be followed by stadium- prohibition. The same thing can happen with materials which explode. One member of our group is actually prohibited to go into the stadium for about one year because of using a lightning stick.
The total number of such prohibitions is at the moment at up to ten, this number will surely increase in the following years.
As you see, the situation is tensioned but already not as bad as in Germany. Activities against the increasing repression are set (banners, more pyro during games), but we are often alone with our problems. Other curves are often too weak to do the same as we do and an Austrian fan- federation is at the moment not existing. Probably this will change if the situation gets worse.

– Could you give us a short report about the history of your group? How has the development been? What activities, choreographies, away-mob and other highlights have there been?

-What groups are important in the curve?
Our group, the Green Lions, was founded on 24th of May in 2003 by 7 enthusiastic fans of Rapid Vienna. Our handicap was that we were not living in Vienna and therefore we had to go by car or train every weekend.
Soon we got to know more people who wanted to see our beloved team in the stadium. While the number of people was increasing, the activities became more. Soon it was possible to visit every single game. At this time the name Green Lions became a more and more important name in the Block.
Then a group of up to 15 members from the south of Upper Austria joined our club, but they soon gave up, because the goals of them were to drink and sit together. OUR goals are to visit every game, be present in the stadium and support independent of the success of our team.
We began to create banners, flags and organized busses to away games from Linz. The absolute highlight was the qualification for the Champions League last autumn. Many new people joined the group and we organized busses to games at home and away.
Now the group consists of 50 people. Every single person is selected by looking after the habit of potential members. Because of the increasing presence in the stadium we are now an accepted part of the Block West (behind Ultras and Tornados). Our goal to enhance the Upper Austrian Rapid fan scene is coming nearer. Beside the activities in the stadium we try to play football on our self at different events.
Concerning to activities in the stadium we are supporting the bigger groups. We hope and expect to make choreographies on ourselves in the near future, closer information to that is not available.
The biggest and dominating group in the Block West is of course Ultras Rapid Block West 1988. They are responsible for every single choreo at home. 2005 they won the TORCIDA price for the best choreos in Europe. Many people, also outside Austria say that the Block West is probably the best German speaking curve. A possible reason is the habit, that we are supporting our team constantly over 90 minutes, independent of the result during the game. A good example for that was the game in Munich last November. We lost 0:4 but at every single time our curve could be heard in the stadium.
The second important group is called Tornados Rapid 1996, sometimes they create choreos on away games, there are especially famous for their videos in the internet. Beside the biggest two groups there are a few smaller ones in the Block West, from which we are one of the important.

The away mob is also very strong. In the Austrian league on average 500-1000 people are driving trough the country, at international games the Mob grows: for example in Turin there were 2500, in Belgium 1400 and in Munich 3300 fans present.

– How is the cooperation between the fans and the club?
At the moment the cooperation is absolutely ok. We have got an agreement with the club that there is now police in the sector. For that reason we avoid to do things that could influence the game and cause damage for the club. Of course only at home!
Sometimes in the nearer past we got problems because of pyrotechnic materials like I described at the beginning. The club also gets pressure from the Austrian soccer association to do something against that. Let us look how things will change in the future. My opinion is that we are in a good position to prohibit negative consequences.

– How do you look at the commercialisation of football? What examples are there in the Austrian leagues?
Commercialisation is a big problem in Austria. In comparison to other smaller leagues the Austrian players get a lot of money. The interest of the people is normally not very high. The most clubs are very happy with 6-7000 visitors. Therefore many clubs in the first and second league have financial problems. Nearly every year one club gets big problems in fulfilling the conditions for getting a playing licence for the next season.
Because of this lag of money the clubs are happy if there is a sponsor, who wants to invest a higher amount of money. This leads to such dependence, that clubs lose their identity. The interests of an investor are in most cases not the same as the interests of the fans. The best example is Red Bull Salzburg. The energy drink company has erased the complete fan scene in Salzburg in a few months. These fans now support a new team in the fourth league.

Our curve often protests against that development. The tendency to make football a good on a market is one of the biggest problems fans all over the world face today. To describe the whole situation in Austria I want to quote banners of the Block West in this season: ”PIRATES OF THE LEAGUE DURING THE FIGHT AGAINST MODERN FOOTBALL”; or: “MAGNA, SUPERFUND, RED BULL: THE WHOLE LEAGUE PROSTITUTES; THE WHOLE LEAGUE…?”, another one: “THE GOOD SPIRIT OF FOOTBALL AGAINST THE BAD SPIRIT OF FOOTBALL KNOWS ONLY ONE WINNER”…(then our logo follows).

During the protests against Red Bull all Austrian curves declared their solidarity with that fans, let us hope that the fight will never end, until we have won!

– What are your most important opponents? What about derbies and what stories are there to tell?
That’s simple: Austria MAGNA Vienna. The derby in Vienna is the highlight of the Austrian league. Over 270 games say everything about the tradition of this event. Of course on this day in and around the stadium nothing is normal. One highlight in the nearest past was the game on 1st of August 2004. The Austria played at home but after the game (1:1) they did not have any chance because we were so much and well organized that in every street the Violas were running away.

Another highlight was the game, also away, on the 25th of October 2005. We protested against Joey Didulica, the goalkeeper of Austria Vienna, because of a brutal foul. The game began 30 minutes delayed after Bengali fires and other things have been thrown on the field. On this day we won 0:2 and after the game we went to the fan pub of Austria Vienna. The police recognized it and stopped us. The personal data of every single person was registered (remember hooligan-register)

At the last derby the Block West organized a mob through the Vienna Prater to the stadium. This was very impressing and another proof that the fans of Rapid Vienna are the number one of Vienna.