Tobias Jones finds in Italian football hooliganism a mirror image of Italy itself

Ultras (Italian football hooligans) initially evolved along the same lines as their more infamous English counterparts, emerging in the 1960s and becoming fully fledged in the 1970s. Their ritual, tribal aggression supplied an outlet for youthful male violence in the relatively peaceful second half of Europe’s most savage century. At first, the curve’s semi-circular ends,behind the goals where ultras congregated were, for all their territorial violence, politics-free, but Tobias Jones notes ‘how hard certain ultras were rubbing the lamp [of fascist revivalism]before the genie appeared’.

In search of a rounded picture, Jones immersed himself in the world of the Cosenza ultras of Calabria, chiefly because they were a group that had always rejected fascism, even running CasaPound out of town when they tried to set up shop there. The Cosenza ultras, cheerfully named I Nuclei Sconvolti (The Deranged Nuclei) are good copy. Drainpipe, Boozy Suzy, Chill and Skinny Monica (their anglicised nicknames making them sound like characters in a Horrid Henry book) are colourfully portrayed.