Ultras: Among The World's Most Extreme Fans, with James Montague and Ros Urwin

Intelligence Squared

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4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ultras are football fans like no others. A hugely visible and controversial part of the sporting game. This movement of extreme fandom and politics is also one of the largest youth movements in the world. In this episode, James Montague, author of '1312: Among the Ultras: A journey with the world's most extreme fans' speaks to Ros Urwin about how the movement began and how it grew to become a global phenomenon that now dominates stadiums across the world. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello podcast listeners. I'm Connor a producer at Intelligence Square and welcome to this
0:05.2	week's episode. Today we have James Monteague for you. He is the author of a new book entitled 13123. Among the Ultras, a journey with the world's most extreme fans.
0:17.0	And he had a really interesting conversation with Ros Irwin, senior reporter at the Sunday Times,
0:22.0	who many of you will have heard on the
0:23.7	podcast before and they have a deep dive into what is one of the most
0:27.3	controversial but also popular subcultures in sports and politics. So we hope you enjoy it and if you do please leave us a
0:34.8	rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps others find out about us and also lets us know
0:39.9	what you think. Hello I'm Roserwin Irwin a journalist for the Sunday Times and welcome to this episode of
0:46.3	the Intelligence Squared podcast
0:48.8	you can sign up for regular updates about podcasts and other events at intelligence squared.com.
0:55.0	I'm here with James Montague, a journalist and the author of 1312, Among the Ultras, A Journey with the
1:01.0	World's Most Extreme fans and welcome today.
1:04.0	Thanks for having me.
1:05.0	Right at the beginning of the book you say that these kind of supporters are the most
1:10.5	misunderstood part of the game. What is it that means they're so
1:15.2	misunderstood? Well the first part is secrecy. I mean when you watch any game of
1:19.6	football in Europe or around the world you'll see banners, flares, you know, almost what's happening in the
1:26.8	stands is as interesting as what's happening on the pitch.
1:29.6	Yet people don't actually know anything about what's going on, the dynamics there, the politics of what's going on, who these people are, because the subculture of Ultras has been,
1:40.0	jealously guards its anonymity and is an extremely anti-establishment, anti-authority kind of concept.
1:48.9	So it is almost impossible to get access to the scene as a journalist, as a writer, you know, they hate the police, anybody in a position of authority and they view the media almost as badly as they view the police and one three one two is a number that I've seen everywhere
2:05.0	at almost every football stadium around the world Casablanca, Jakarta, Tel Aviv, Cairo,
	...

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