7 Most Political Football Clubs - Part Two

here in england football clubs remain

largely apolitical

a majority of match attending liverpool

fans may lean slightly to the left

and dulich hamlet in the national league

south certainly have strong community

ties and subsequent political

involvement

but by and large there is very little

radical political leanings at english

clubs

this is not the case in much of the

world where many of the most fiercely

contested rivalries are either built

upon or have elements of

fervently held opposing political

viewpoints involved in them

subscribers to this channel may recall

that in october 2019

i made a video looking at seven of the

most political football clubs on earth

much to my surprise that video wasn't

demonetized and had quite a lot of views

so naturally today's video will probably

be demonetized and watched by about 13

people

naturally i won't be including any of

the clubs who featured in part 1 of this

video

and though i doubt it i could easily

make a part 3

if the demand for one existed political

football clubs tend to fall into one of

three categories

right wing left wing and separatist you

don't tend to get many radical centrist

football clubs with

shay guevara style posters of nick clegg

plaster to the stands

and supporters belting out chants about

pragmatism and compromise

which is a shame because that would be

brilliant last time out i tried to

remain an apolitical commentator

on most assuredly non-apolitical

football clubs although i still called a

communist by one person in the comments

because i said nazi salutes and monkey

chants were a teeny bit racist

i will try to remain just as impartial

on this occasion and hopefully between

us we can keep the comments reasonably

civil and not let it descend into a

complete cess bit of hate

here are the seven most political

football clubs in world football

part two aek athens

in part one we took a look at the

political landscape of cypriot football

i won't say which clubs for the sake of

those of you who haven't seen that video

and still plan to do so

and today we turn our attention to

greece

historically greek football has tended

to be as politically charged as cypriot

football but there has been a rise in

prominence of certain politically fueled

ultras and hooligans

in recent years due to the rise of the

far-right and neo-nazi golden dawn party

a lot of greek football clubs have far

right and far left fan clubs and ultra

groups and ak athens falls into that

bracket

so there is lots of nuance when it comes

to the political allegiances of greek

football clubs however

there are still some lazy

generalizations one can make

ak athens were founded in 1924 by

refugees fleeing the greco-turkish war

the k in ak literally means

constantinople modern-day istanbul

and as refugees ak have naturally

long-held anti-fascist

and anti-racist inclinations much of

ak's fanbase still reside in

left-leaning working-class

neighbourhoods

making ak one of greece's most

politically active clubs

in 2013 aek midfielder georgios catidis

controversially celebrated a goal with a

nazi or roman salute

catitis went for what is now known as

the hennessy defense

claiming that he knew nothing of the

implications of the gesture

but it didn't wash following thumb

pressure he never played for the club

again

and he also received a lifetime ban from

representing the greek national team

hanzo rostock anyone who watched my

video about seven unusual football

rivalries will know a little bit about

hansa rostock who don't receive an

enormous amount

of international attention these days

one of the most successful clubs in east

germany whilst germany was divided

hanza were relegated from the bundesliga

in 2005

and they dropped into the third leaguer

in 2012.

there are some similarities between

hanzo rostock and the city of rostock

in the sense that both were quite

important and successful in east germany

but have had their struggles since the

fall of the berlin wall

rostock was the scene of the xenophobic

1992 rostock lichtenhagen riots

in which a mob of two to three thousand

people shouted racist chants and

attacked migrants and refugees as the

police watched on passively as many

locals applauded

it was the worst attack on migrants in

post-war german history

and it came as a concern to many in a

nation with a rather dark past when it

comes to the rise of the far right

there haven't been any repeats of the

1992 rostock rides since but the city

does retain a far right french

some of whom are closely associated with

the football club

this has led to a rather first rivalry

between hanza and germany's most

left-wing club

sank pauly and it also leads to them

featuring in sixth place in this seven

athletic club i wanted to include a

separatist club in this seven and it was

a toss-up between athletic club and

bastia

in the end i went with athletic club

whose political stance extends beyond

their supporters

and into their dressing room the club

from bilbao often referred to as

athletic bilbao here in the uk

have a well-known cantera policy which

means they only sign players

with some link to the basque country the

policy has been both lauded

and criticized in separate quarters with

some complimenting the support and

development of homegrown players

whilst others have raised red flags as

to whether the policy could be

considered racist

of course athletic club do not

discriminate on issues of ethnicity or

religious beliefs

just links to the local region which at

times can be rather tenuous in truth

the bilbao club's cantera policy has

close ties to the idea of basque

nationalism

and even basque separatism whilst the

basque nationalist movement has rather

taken second stage

to the more prevalent desire for

separatism among many in catalonia in

recent times

it is still a sizable movement basque

nationalists seek a political unity of

the basque people

scattered in spain and france an

athletic club has inevitably become

somewhat intertwined with the political

movement

hapoel tel aviv a quick look at the

happwell tel aviv badge

featuring a hammer and sickle should

give you a decent idea

of the club's political inclinations in

fact you don't even need to see the

club's badge

since the word hapoel means the worker

israel has plenty of political clubs

including possibly

the most right-wing club on earth who

featured in part one of this series

political persuasions very evidently lie

on the opposite end of the spectrum

our perception of israel maybe is a very

nationalistic and right-wing nation but

naturally

there is a plurality of political

opinions in every country

even in the ones where dissenting views

are quashed or even criminalized

hapoe long pre-day israel's declaration

of independence

founded in 1923 and for seven decades

the team was owned by the histadrat

which is israel's national trade union

centre trade unions tend to be around

the left-wing as i'm sure you all know

and the histaderet is no exception

images of karl marx and che guevara can

often be found at the bloomfield stadium

in tel aviv

along with the slogan reading workers of

the world unite

happily's fan groups range from the

center left supporters of israel's

labour party

to marxists and leninists who favor the

nation's more fringe parties

like the israeli communist party also

known as maki

celtic when i tell you that hapwell tel

aviv have a long-standing friendship

with celtic you can probably guess where

celtics sits on the political spectrum

there was more outrage about celtic's

emission than that of any other team in

my part one back in october and i partly

left celtic out because of the religious

importance as well as political

importance to fans

partly because i had seven equally

political or even more political clubs

and partly because anything involving

celtic and rangers on this platform

tends to turn a little sour in the

comments nonetheless

today i am making amends and hopefully

you will all prove me wrong with that

last suspicion

incredibly celtic are believed to have

around 10 million followers worldwide

which is around twice the entire

population of scotland much of celtic

support comes from football fans in

ireland and from the wider irish

dysphora across the globe

celtic were founded many moons ago by

irish catholics with a purpose of acting

as a charity to help impoverished

children in glasgow

the old firm derby between celtic and

rangers is one that's still coloured by

religious

political and sectarian debates and

irish flags and ira related chants

are not uncommon at celtic park the

green brigade ultra group out of

celtic's political reputation

considered to be radically anti-fascist

and anti-racist

the green brigade have protested celtic

wearing the popular and remembrance day

due to its controversy in ireland

as well as making displays of their

solidarity with the people of palestine

by displaying palestinian flux as a

result celtic supporters groups have

close ties to a number of left-wing

clubs from across the globe

chemnitzer fc the least well-known team

in this seven

particularly among younger viewers

chemnitz or fc have never competed in

the bundesliga

located in the city of chemnitz saxony

chemnitzer fc

have a curious political past from 1953

to 1990 during the years of german

division the east germans renamed the

city of chemnitz

karl marx stand initially doing so in

1953

to mark 70 years since marx's death and

the football club

followed sue with a renaming of their

own it was a new name for a new city in

many respects

since the city center had been

completely destroyed during the second

world war

karl marx dad became a model socialist

town but there remained lingering

discontent

ironically the former socialist model

town is now home to one of germany's

largest far-right movements

and the football club once named fc karl

marx stad

is now strongly associated with

germany's few remaining nazis or

neo-nazis

last season chemnitz are sought to

distance themselves from the extreme

sections of their support

by sacking their caps in amstar center

forward daniel thran

after he expressed sympathy for the

neo-nazi groups

however just months earlier the club

allowed a pre-match tribute to deceased

neo-nazi tommy hala

who founded the who nara supporters

group with the hunara

standing for hooligans nazis racist

this true controversy in germany and

chemnitzer has been the scene of

germany's largest far-right rallies

and anti-immigrant rhetoric in recent

times

rayo vallacano this seven isn't in order

of most political

most marxist or anything like that but i

did immediately pencilling ray of akana

for top spot

since they are the team who i felt most

aggrieved about leaving out part one of

this video

there is perhaps no club in spanish

football with a greater community spirit

than rhea viacarno located

in the biacas neighborhood of madrid

madrid is a football mad city but in the

shadow of the giants of rail and

atletico

there is rayo however whatever rayo

lacking success compared to their new

neighbours

they more than make up for impassion the

viaca district of madrid both now and

historically

is renowned for its radical left-wing

thoughts and fierce opposition

to fascism and racism this is an ethos

the local football club firmly embraces

and particularly the club's ultras known

as the buccaneers

rayo and the buccaneers in particular

are renowned for their community

engagement and charity work

it is said that a player saniferaeo

signs a social contract

as much as a sporting one and must know

what it means to represent the club

in 2017 when reyes signed striker roman

zazulia

the club was met with fierce opposition

due to zola's reported sympathy and

support

for far-right causes in ukraine the

opposition was so fast that zazolia

never played for rayo and when he faced

rayo as an albacetti player the game was

abandoned by the referee

due to the level of vitriol aimed in his

direction

rayo are undoubtedly one of the most

politically charged football clubs on

earth

so that's it for today's video thank you

all for watching check out part one if

you haven't already seen it

let us know your views in the comments

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