Why the Far Right Tries to Recruit Football Hooligans | Decade of Hate

For decades, football and the far right have interacted with each other in various ways across the globe. This interaction often involves a small subset of fans – ‘ultras’, ‘casuals’, ‘hooligans’, the definitions change depending on where you are in the world – who are seen as the most devoted, fanatical followers of their football clubs, often engaging in extreme violence with each other.

But what is it about hooligans that makes them a target of far-right recruitment?

This is how, from London to Belgrade to Jerusalem, right-wing movements and political parties have attempted to co-opt the testosterone-charged energy of the football terraces, and turn it into a ready-made weapon to silence opponents. But also how rival hooligan firms can put aside their differences, just as they do for international games, and form their own far-right movements.

Watch more from this series:

How the Far Right Use Memes to Recruit
   • How the Far Right Use Memes to Recrui...  

The Rise and Fall of Generation Identity
   • The Rise of France’s Far-Right Youth ...  

The Far Right Used the War In Ukraine as Training
   • Why the Far Right Joined the 2013-14 ...  

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