This interview was conducted editors of zine Left side terraces. This information-analytical magazine about fan movements close to the left positions.
- Tell us about your city of Zagreb. What football traditions in your
city?
Zagreb is a capital of Croatia, and the biggest city with 700,000 people living in it, and around a million with the surroundings.
- What football traditions in your city?
- First football clubs in Croatia are organized from 1903. First was PNIŠK (predecessor of todays FC Zagreb), and second was HAŠK (predecessor of todays Dinamo).
- Tell about history your club.
- History of all Croatian clubs are very complicated. First PNIŠK were very soon shut, then other clubs named Zagreb existed in 1908., 1911. and they stopped existing during the WWI. Then finnaly in 1919. one small working class club HŠK Zagreb (Croatian sport club Zagreb) was here, which played close to the todays Zagreb stadium, and who played lower Zagreb leagues until 1941. when it was closed by Ustaša regime. It was finnaly established in 1946. as FC Zagreb, and as a resolt of coalition of few smaller clubs and FC Concordia, bigger club who played in old Yugoslavia, and Ustaša regime during WWII.
- What are your political views? You take part in the parliamentary elections? You are an anarchist or a supporter of any political party?
Our groups political view is unknown, because of a lot of varius views of our members. We have anarchists, communists, even a few apolitical guys and liberals. But one thing is clear. Always antifa, and no mafia political party (all in croatia) could ever be supported.
- Tell us about the history of your support group White Angels. Do FC Zagreb other firms?
- About history; you have three generations of WA. First one from 1989.-1996. That one was just like all other group in Croatia during the war. We even had some members of BBB in the crew then. Numbers then were like today around 50. So the group was preety much nacionalized with a lot of Croatia flags. Then the second generation came around 1999. and we funded fun club. In 2002 our club won the first league and our numbers went to 200. After that football mafia entered the club and started their robbing and destroying the club that lasts even today. Around 2006. the third generation started its path, with a lot of punks, skins and other alterative scene members. Then we started to send antifa massages. Soon local AFA people started to go to the stands. So now we are a group of 30, fun club of a club that does not have any connections with their own club. And no, FC zagreb has only us on the stands.
- What a performance you prepare for a match? Whether using pyrotechnics?
- Flags, banners, massages, choreographys, and of course pyro. Now we play croatian second league and everything is much easier.
- What achievements of your club?
- The best achievements of our clubs are a still standing record in people on one match in 1973. – 64 000 people (second yugoslav league - now we cant make 500), two seconds, and one third place in early 90s, lost final of a croatian cup by Dinamo 1997. (Dinamo bought that game), and of course 2002. and winning the croatian title. From then we are just falling...
- Which clubs have friendly relations? What fans hate?
Preety much no friends in other clubs and funs. Reason is simple, we are the only real antifa firm in Croatia, and all other are nacionalised or fash. Our only friends are a lot of contacts specally in groups Germany, Slovakia, Spain and Bosnia. But we have a strong friendship with Zagreb’s AFA, MASA (croatian anarchosyndicalists), local punk and hc scene, and some NGOs. Hate? We don’t hate anyone. Some people are just not good enough to be hated.
- What is your relationship with Dynamo and Lokomotiv Zagreb?
- Dinamo is our old clubs rival, and the city rival, so we take their BBB as rivals to. But we are very small group to even compare to the BBB, and they are not into us at all. The don’t see us even as a group so we are left to be, and they have a lot of problems with the police and football mafia who are trying to destroy them. The other main rivals of the club are Hajduk (Torcida), Rijeka (Armada), and Osijek (Kohorta) because that 5 clubs are the biggest clubs in Croatian football history (+Zagreb). Locomotiv Zagreb is a fake club, runned by Dinamo, and one of the Dinamos stations for washing money.
- Do your fan clubs in other cities of Croatia and in other countries?
- No fan clubs in other cities and countries. We are just one crew in Zagreb , and one dying club with huge tradition.
- Are there many in Croatia at the moment fascist fans? In Zagreb many fascists? Do in Croatia Communist and Nazi party? How people relate to Joseph Tito?
- All other fans in Croatia are fascist and nacionalists. Zagreb fascists are in BBB. But they are not what the used to be in early 90s. Zagreb is a quiet city now. Croatia has communist, and ultra right ustaša party, but no nazi. They are very small and irrelevant. About Tito - half of the people in Croatia thinks that he is a criminal dictator, and half with a nostalgia for past times and Yugoslavia.
- How on tribune relate sexism and homophobia? Do you have a girl on tribunes?
- We are strogly against sexism and homophobia and even had some banners against it. And yes we allways had some girls on our stands.
- What is your relationship with the players and club leadership? What is your financial situation?
- Player relationship is okay. But the clubs president is one construction company mafia guy (Dražen Medić) who is here because of the Zagreb mayor. He changed club colors, club logo, and totally destroyed clubs rep as a city's club. Let just say that corruption here is high, and those two are looking a way to destroy our stadion, and build shopping center (stadium is in city’s center). We are strongly aginst him, but we are also to weak to do anything. Financial situation is a mess, depth existis, and its hidden and unknown by anyone.
- Tell about Croatia ultras-scene. What is the ratio of right side and left side on the terrace? How often do you have a fight with right-wing?
- All of Croatia ultras-scene is right and there is no other left side. But fights with right-wing are not often. BBB is ocupied with their club's mafia who by the way owns whole Croation football, so they can't afford any bad rep in the media (for attacking or making trouble). And there is some kind of truce betwen all of the groups in Croatia because of the repression.
- You take part in streets protest action?
- Our members often participate on street protests. Sometimes as a group, and sometimes just individually. Some of last street actions were anti-government protests in 2011, then protests for saving the Warsaw street in 2010, every year we march on the Antifa march in Zagreb, and there is also Gay pride every may.
- In Croatia have strict laws for the fans?
- Lows for the fans are more strict every year. Police and football mafia started to put more pressure on the fans in last few years. BBB is today on so much repression that they cant even go to the home matches. They are trying to kill them because they have find big illigal stuff going on in Dinamo, and croatian football. There have been one large fight betwen the police and BBB when one cop lost his eye. Then they arrested and convicted one of the BBB without any evidence as an example for others. In the same riot one of the BBB was shot and almost died. We had some arrests for pyro and arrests for some small fights with fascist on the stadium. And now we have 5 banned funs in the group of 30. But some of them still come to do game.
- How often drive on tour? In what city in Croatia you are driving on the game? What is your further trip in Croatia? European Cup matches?
- We are making to the 75% of away games. Sometimes we just dont have the money to go. Largest distance was, for us in Croatia is Split 400km and Vinkovci (FC Cibalia) 350km in one way. Other citiys are Koprivnica, Čakovec, Varaždin, Sisak, Rijeka, Pula, Zadar, Šibenik... Now in the second league the story is the same. Every European Cup of FC Zagreb was visited. But there were only few of them. Once in Albania and once in Hungary.
- Do grassroots organizations in Croatia against modern football?
- The movement „against modern football“ is getting stronger among the fans. One group even lost patience with the mafia in their club and started their own. White stones from Varaždin, and their club is called Varteks. They were playing the last league and now get promoted. It was a god derby when they old club was bankrupted, and dropped in the last league to. So the new funs club won that game. We are seriously thinking to do the same thing. This is not our FC Zagreb any more, and its definitely not the club we once knew.
- Tell us about your concert "Night of the angels"
- Night of the angels started in the 2007. And in 2013. we had concert 6th. It started for a fun clubs birthday. And now we even make some money on them to survive during the year. We are very close with the local punk, and HC scene so we are always calling some bands from ours members. It is a party for us, and the other Zagreb folks, and we are always listing new members and selling our requisites.
- On what do you spend the stadium matches? How much is a ticket to the game? Can I get for free?
- We are sprending our matches on cheering? Ticket was very expensive for us in the first league last year, around 6euros. That’s more then even Dinamo. Now it’s cheaper. But you can get to the stadium with little problems without ticket. So we do that. It’s better not to spend money then give it to the mafia.
- Do you organize social protect? Whether you have antifascist tournaments?
- We have mixed small-football team with the aslyum seekers. It started as a relaxed play behind local schools, and now we are playing together on tournaments. We were in Bremen last weekend played on the “Footbalfans gegen homophobia” and won third place from 14 teams. Who knows, maybe they will be new players for our new FC Zagreb... We also started antifascist tournament few years ago. It happens once in the year in October. Last year we had third one with 10 teams, like AFA Zagreb, MASA, Asylum seekers, some NGO, some college teams, queer teams, and even local amateur clubs juniors.
- What do you think about the commercial football?
- We follow Croatian second league where the quality is so bad that I sometimes cry from laughter. No commercial football and some big clubs can replace that.
- How do you feel about the war in Yugoslavia? What do you think about the Ustasha? Why Serbs and Croats do not like each other? What can you say about Kosovo?
- Well what to say. War was a cover for plunder and robbing our country. When lots of people were on the front line (including my father) the present political elite was doing its best do destroy and sell our factories and economy just to fill their own pockets. Now my generation is left with no jobs, and our county is left to the debt slavery on the foreign banks. I have a lot of Serbian friends that think like me, and I don’t have anything against them. Nationalism is food for idiots. Ustašas? Very simple, traitors of Croatia and collaborators to nazis. All Croatians who think otherwise know very little of Croatian history. Kosovo? We don’t have anything with Kosovo, but I guess, every country has a right to decide what they want.
- On the territory of the former Yugoslavia have a lot of anti-fascist ultras?
- Only us in Croatia, and three groups in Bosnia. All others are nacionalists. Those three groups are Red Army Mostar (FC Velež), Robijaši Zenica (FC Čelik) and Fukare Tuzla (FC Sloboda). But those three groups from Bosnia are not „modern“ antifa like us. They are more like yugonostalgic, Tito and stuff. They could never have some anti-homophobia banners. You also have a strong left wing in Novi Sad (Serbia), in Firma (FC Vojvodina) but right wing is now stronger.
- What do you know about russian fans?
- We know almost nothing about Russian fans. I know that right wing is very strong, hooliganism also, and of course the episode when Zenit fash atacked Torcida
- What are your plans for the future of your club?
- We don’t know. Our club is strictly depending of citys money and two mafia guys (mayor and the president of a club). They have destroyed the clubs support among regular Zagreb people, and the club has no sponsors. We can only see going down. Maybe we will start our own club, and start from the beginning or wait that club fall and than try to take over it.
- Your wishes Russian antifascists
- We really dont know anything about your group. We hope that we will find up some more and of corse every antifa guys from your group that are passing through Zagreb must contact us, so we can give him some tours of the city, accommodation and some domestic food and drinks. That would be nice . SMRT FAŠIZMU!