Photo Special – Smoke and Fire
Perusing the Pitch Invasion photo pool, I couldn’t stop being drawn to the vast array of (yet eerily similar) photos of pyro displays by ultras around the world. Here’s just a brief selection, stopping in Austria, Sweden, Serbia, Poland and Greece.
Franz Horr Stadion
Hammarby - Djurgården
Partizan - Crevena Zvezda
Olympiakos vs. Panathanaikos
Partizan FC - Crvena Zvezda
Lechia Gdańsk - Lech Poznań
Photo credits: Viviendole la Vida a Otro!; pelle_T; photoreti; Mr.GEMYHOoOD; lembagg
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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I couldn’t tell if it was Djurgården supporters or Hammarby supporters above.
Nevertheless, absent is the third, and most notorious of Stockholm clubs: AIK and their supporters the Black Army or Firman Boys.
If you are looking for impressive visuals from Sweden, it is usally AIK (such as shown here: http://www.freewebs.com/gnagetclub/blackarmybilder.htm)
Have to say I’m a bit shocked to see the Serbian photo here. That’s not a pyro show, Zvezda’s fans (?) simply set seats on fire whe Partizan won. As for Poland, I hope you won’t mind a youtube link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTTZMdA144Y This pyro show was described by Corriere Della Sera as “masters of pyrotechnics”. I’m not boasting – you know Lech’s not my team, it’s just damn impressive.
There is always more passion about the game the further you go east but that might also end with cameras installed inside the stadiums, and the fear of going to prison will overcome the courage to light a something on fire for the sake of a light and fire spectacle.
http://www.fcutdphotos.co.uk/galleries/0809/bradfordh/IMG_8900.jpg
as seen at fc united v bradford park avenue last saturday.
This picture is awesome! such a passion for the game. Not so much here in the US
We’ve managed a couple of small pyro displays in the UK regional leagues, recently firing three blue smokes during our last game of the season. Despite no complaints from the ref, lino’s or visiting team’s officials we still got reported by the County FA for failing to control the crowd. I actually spoke to the ref afterwards and he had no problem with the smokes but had to include them in the match report as two Suffolk FA officials had been in the main stand.
I’d love to see more pyro at British games, but the stakes are too high. Nobody wants a three year ban.
I recently saw a banner at a French game that translated as ‘Freedom of expression for Ultras’. Let’s hope the message spreads.
were these fires or fireworks? in one it looks like water being sprayed
Great photos!
Its nice to see this kind of atmosphere in European stadiums.
I tend to enjoy Argentinian football the most because of their passion for the game.