OFFSET YOUR WORLD CUP TRAVEL WITH GREENERTRAVEL
Date: 24th April 2026
Ultra no sense
By Donald C Stewart
I took a little while to get myself around to watching the three-part Ultras programme on BBC Scotland. Having settled down on the iPlayer to watch the three programmes envelop my afternoon, it came as little surprise that I found myself initially being intrigued, then concerned and ultimately confused by aspects of it.
The idea of an Ultra, appropriated from Europe, particularly Germany, where they have made such a successful entry into the world of European football, is moot. We have always had fans groups, whether it be casuals, people with Letraset making fanzines or Supporters’ Associations, either endorsed or not endorsed by the club.
Fans have always found a way to collect themselves together to show support.
The difference with the Ultras would appear to be a double-edged sword.
Let us begin as the documentary does with the positives. In the first part of the three-part documentary, we saw the way in which Patrick Thistle has endorsed these young lads. We met them enthusiastic about the game, but also about the show, the theatricality of what they do: bringing support and atmosphere to the club and to the players which is something to be encouraged.
By the end of the first programme, I was feeling enthused, a little intrigued and settled into thinking this is a damn good thing. I was thinking we should have much more of this. It was made all the clearer when we met the young lad who supports The Spartans. We saw him going along to the Hibs and Hearts derby with his mum, a single parent living in Edinburgh. It was heartening to see that connection between football supporters that would allow a 10-year-old to feel part of something, to be given a role to play.
Then in the second part, we got to the negative, concerning side. The balaclavas, the way in which lower league fans, from clubs outside of the SPFL but in the Pyramid feel emboldened and encouraged to be disruptive.
Now, the one guy who charts the Ultras, supports them and turns up to video them is a guy by the name of Blair. A nice chap who appears to have one faltering quality: naïvete. He was interviewed throughout, becoming an unofficial spokesperson, then claiming he was done up like a kipper when the Union Bears were coming to an Old Firm semi-final at Hampden and when he forgot he had his mic on when traipsing away from the ground at Kilwinning Rangers. The editing was not dodgy, but he did, outside in the way he was attempting to avoid the Union Bears was a true Danny Dyer moment. It could have been handled better, and he handed them a real gotcha moment. To be fair, I would probably have been worse.
It was, however, concerning to see that some people who have a belief in their own publicity, think they can have an influence upon large numbers of groups. The media personality you create through YouTube, TikTok, or wherever is insufficient to provide agency to give advice. Once you arrive with a camera and talk up the displays and the disruption with hyperbole when quite a lot of the “action” is 14-year-olds with flares they legally should not possess or banging drums with language you cannot broadcast in mainstream media.
The disruptive behaviour of a minority – true though that is – is the major worry. In particular the damage to one ground in lower league football because of pyrotechnics being thrown onto artificial grass really is a concern.
The third programme brought things together and gave me more hope.
The way the Well Bois have been engaged by the club is a positive because you see the future.
It’s clichéd to talk of young people coming through turnstiles as the future of your club although, it’s important the way in which the Prawn Sandwich Brigade have taken over the English Premiership, for example, and even our own Premiership, so that the cost of going to see the football at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, if your team still plays at that time, is astronomical.
It’s through the roof.
Most working-class families simply can’t afford that. You could see some kind of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory poverty-style system of rotation that a season book would be bought for a house and then passed between father, son, brother, cousin, uncle, sister, auntie, Robert, Jane, Fiona, Sharif, Tom, Cobley and all, because nobody on their own could afford one. It would be the equivalent of a Willy Wonka golden ticket or one big slipper for all.
Going down the lower leagues and you see just exactly how important the community clubs are to their community.
It was unfortunate that Kilwinning Rangers felt they had to ban Blair from the ground, but that had to do with celebrating exuberance, when they are encouraging malevolence.
Just exactly how true it is with regards to the ultras across the whole of Scotland, I don’t know, but the balance in the BBC three-part documentary was important.
It brings that second thing, challenge.
Young people are enthusiastic, quick to temper, often quick to feel that they are being discarded.
I know that.
I was a teenager once, in the 1980s.
That’s nearly 50 years ago, it was the same then as now.
One of the problems that we have as old people is that we blame the young forgetting that we were young at one point until of course the young respond and tell us that we are out of date, and we respond in kind by saying we were young once. Well go away and remember what it was like. Young people being encouraged to come into football is a challenge because you have to take on board that they are not always going to agree with what you think; they’re not always going to know your background; they’re not always going to value your experience. It’s a double-edged sword.
I came away feeling a lot better about Ultras after the third part. I still believe pyros need a place and there needs to be a positive engagement with their use. Ultras need a space and they need an opportunity to sit around the table and negotiate things for themselves.
Scottish football needs an atmosphere and the more that we head towards the moneymen being the ones on the terraces, the less characters we have.
It will continue to be a problem one wonders what Fergie of the Accies would have felt about the Ultras. I certainly know the language he would have used – ask yer papa…
Posted in: Fan's Blog, Latest News
Tags: Scotland, Scottish football, SFA, SPFL, Ultras