Nationalist extremism, violence, ties to organized crime and politics are the defining features of hooliganism in the Western Balkans, according to a report by the Global Initiative against Translation Organized Crime (GITOC).
GITOC surveyed the behavior of football fans across the Western Balkan, making a distinction between membership in “ultras groups” (fans that support their teams in a fanatical way) and “hooligans” who “engage in organized crime and violence.”
After mapping support for major clubs in six countries, the report found that “football hooliganism in the WB6 is a potentially explosive cocktail because of its links to politics, ethnic and religious extremism, and organized crime.”
At best, youngsters in the Western Balkans join ultras groups for a sense of belonging and identity, and because well-organized fan groups offer them the type of structure that they lack elsewhere.
However participation in more violent groupings may serve as an entry point into crime and nationalist extremism. Young fans are first recruited to attack police or rival fans, before they are induced into greater misdeeds, like selling hard drugs or serving politician with ties to organized crime.
“Violence in the ultras scene has less to do with the football and more to do with organized crime and politics,” according to the report.
Nationalism also plays a big role in the Western Balkan football scene, with national alliances often being the cause of violence in stadiums and outside of them.
“There is little need for online recruitment, since young people join fan groups of their own accord. Indoctrination into extreme nationalism or recruitment into criminal groups usually takes place offline, either in stadiums or through personal contacts with hooligan or ultras group,” GITOC found.
The report also found that “political parties use hooligan groups to promote party goals and stoke, ethnic tensions before elections”.
The situation with hooligans is worrisome in Bosnia, North Macedonia and Serbia, with the Albanian scene being one of the milder cases.
Ultimately, GITOC “recommends paying greater attention to the social conditions that motivate vulnerable youth to become involved in football hooliganism, which can serve as an entry point for organized crime.”
