What European football clubs have the most left-wing and right-wing fanbases?

[SNJ1985]

For teams with right-wing fanbases; Zenit St. Petersburg and S.S. Lazio come to mind.

[politicus]

FC St. Pauli has the most left wing fans (if we are talking about professional football). There are plenty of clubs that attract fascists/racists/ultranationalists etc. so if you go by that it will be hard to evaluate, though Lazio would be my guess. Chelsea if you include economic policy in the definition of right wing. Their fans are right wing on both axis with a "proud" anti-semitic tradition.

[morgieb]

Hard to say.

In the Premier League (basically the only soccer league I know a significant amount about), proably Sunderland, Swansea or Newcastle are the most left-wing. All the Merseyside/Lancashire clubs would have too strong of a universal appeal to be the most left-wing.

It can't be Chelsea due to global bandwagoners for most right-wing, Southampton maybe?

[Insula Dei]

There are plenty of clubs that attract fascists/racists/ultranationalists etc. so if you go by that it will be hard to evaluate, though Lazio would be my guess.

Partizan Belgrado.

Also, shouldn't this be on another board?

[SNJ1985]

Well, BRTD's thread about NFL fanbases is on this board.

[bore]

Livorno is a good example of a left wing team.

[justfollowingtheelections]

I actually know a Samoan Lazio fan (he has grown up in Italy) and I had asked him about the reputation Lazio fans have, and he told me that it's more of a stereotype.  The majority of Lazio fans don't subscribe to a particular ideology.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

How about Easington Colliery AFC?

[politicus]

How about Easington Colliery AFC?

They are amateurs. If you count them there are plenty of left wing clubs all over Europe, so impossible to rank them. I am just sure St. Pauli has the most left wing fans for a professional club.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/08/18/football.st.pauli.punks/

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is just about possible that I was being facetious.

But if we're talking professional clubs and large ones at that, I'd like to point out that most clubs are not politicised (England, for instance, doesn't even have a tradition of political football clubs; even when there are multiple clubs in the same city politics is not an indicator of support) and most fans don't regard supporting their club as a political act. You also have to be careful not to assume that all fans of a particular club have the same attitudes as the various hard-core fan subcultures; this is often not the case at all. Never forget that Richard Attenborough supported Chelsea.

[afleitch]

Celtic FC are fairly left wing at the grassroots level. East end Glasgow, Catholics and all that stuff.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And while we're at it, Zenit's most famous fan was certainly not right wing

[politicus]

You also have to be careful not to assume that all fans of a particular club have the same attitudes as the various hard-core fan subcultures; this is often not the case at all. Never forget that Richard Attenborough supported Chelsea.

It would still be hard to top St. Paulis mix of dockers, prostitutes, anarchists, transvestites and ordinary working class people from a blue-collar enclave like St Pauli. Their hardcore fans are either anarchists or far left socialists and the broad mass would be SPD with some Linke. The whole club culture is alien to right wingers.

[Tender Branson]

Rapid and Austria Vienna's fans are mostly working-class with their ultras having neo-Nazi tendencies.

That's probably also true for the other clubs here.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Sibboleth is correct.

[politicus]

Sibboleth is correct.

Sure he is. Your point?

[bore]

Yeah, the old firm are probably the only clubs in Scotland who's fanbase have some sort of distinct political viewpoint, by which I mean rehashing 300 year old Irish politics. The Green Brigade (Celtic's ultras) also have a bizarre emphasis on Israel Palestine. That's obviously not to say that every celtic and rangers fan subscribes to their team's stereotypical position on the pope or the queen, and I'd bet that the political aspect is less common among the many glory hunters whose only connection to Glasgow is a great grandfather visiting once, but in my experience of Easter Road Celtic and Rangers travelling fans (which tend to be the more committed section of the support) are the only ones who ever sing about politics.

As Al said though the vast majority of clubs aren't political themselves, so the most left wing club would be somewhere like East Fife or Motherwell and the most right wing club would be in the deepest darkest home counties or somewhere like that.

I do vaguely remember some poll which showed that football fans in Britain were a lot more likely to vote Labour which isn't that surprising given the demographics.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It would still be hard to top St. Paulis mix of dockers, prostitutes, anarchists, transvestites and ordinary working class people from a blue-collar enclave like St Pauli. Their hardcore fans are either anarchists or far left socialists and the broad mass would be SPD with some Linke. The whole club culture is alien to right wingers.

Yeah, but St. Pauli is exactly the sort of club I had in mind as an exception!

[Phony Moderate]

I looked at some polls on football club fan forums during the last election (perhaps not the most accurate indicator, but still). IIRC Liverpool fans were 60-20 Labour-Lib Dem with the Tories below 5% and Manchester United were 45-35-15 Labour-Lib Dem-Tory. Labour and Tories were close with Rangers fans, with the BNP doing well and the SNP badly. The SNP and Labour were close with Celtic fans with no other party doing well. So pretty much all as expected.

[Insula Dei]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sMSaUErAY4

The following document provides some much needed inside information about the belief system of the Rangers community. While I've never studied anthropology at depth, I'm aware of the absolute authority in these matters of native informers.

[swl]

St-Pauli is one of the very few clubs that attract fans primarily because of politics. Livorno is a bit similar: they are more known for politics rather than their actual results.

In France the left-wing right-wing opposition in football is limited to an antiracist vs nationalist dimension. And like Sibboleth said, organized group of supporters are sometimes politicized, but there is no 'politicized clubs'.

Marseille and Bordeaux organized fans are left-wing. Lyon and Lille ultras are more right-wing.
Paris was split 50/50 and the political dimension was very important, but following too many fights between the two sides that finally led to one death, organized groups of supporters are now forbidden.

[solarstorm]

left-wing: St. Pauli
right-wing: Hansa Rostock

[bore]

Relevant.

[bartoli]

FC St. Pauli has the most left wing fans (if we are talking about professional football). There are plenty of clubs that attract fascists/racists/ultranationalists etc. so if you go by that it will be hard to evaluate, though Lazio would be my guess. Chelsea if you include economic policy in the definition of right wing. Their fans are right wing on both axis with a "proud" anti-semitic tradition.

yeah St.Pauli from German, and Besiktas from Turkey, are one of most left wing, even close to anarchic. Maybe AEK greece, and Barcelona.
The right would be Lazio, Milwall, Serbian clubs Partizan and maybe Red Star,Russian Zenit St.Petersburg.
 

[Former President tack50]

For Spain, kind of unrelated, but FC Barcelona's fanbase is certainly very pro-independence. Meanwhile the other Barcelona team (RCD Espanyol) has a mostly unionist fanbase, but not to the extent that Barcelona's fanbase is pro-independence (in fact the club owners try to declare themselves neutral on the issue, unlike Barcelona's owners).