Forest fighting football hooligans want a league of their own
Danish football fans are going to forests and having 20-on-20 brawls.
A few months back The Copenhagen Post published a story with the headline Danish forest-fighting hooligans pining for legitimacy. The pun-tastic story detailed clashes between Danish soccer fan groups, which apparently take place not inside soccer stadiums, but in the wilds of Scandinavia.
“Groups of fans of Brøndby, FC Copenhagen, Odense, Esbjerg and a number of other football teams in Denmark regularly meet up in forests to fight one another in organized battle,” stated the CPH Post.
The report also stated that fights are usually set-up to be 20 vs. 20, 10 vs. 10, or 7 vs. 7. There are also fights reserved for younger fighters, with brawls only featuring men aged under 23 or 18.
These Danish groups have also been known to fight foreign firms in Germany and Sweden.
An anonymous ‘forest-fighter’ spoke to the Danish tabloid BT about the scene. They said that the forest fights were comparable to MMA, with both punches and kicks permitted. That individual stated that he and his fellow brawlers were “pining for a proper league of their own.”
“It’s about meeting like-minded people in reasonably controlled conditions. I can’t see the point of going to the stadiums and causing chaos, because it then affects random families, and that’s ridiculous,” said the source.
“If you go to Poland, there is actually a league with referees. You could avoid a lot of problems such as cheating, injuries, and the police if these fights are sanctioned under special conditions.”
Danish hooligan groups who engage in forest-fighting aren’t shy about their activities. Hooligan social media groups like Ultras Danmark - Fights and thetroublemakingvikings include dozens of images and videos from forest-fights.
YouTube is also brimming with forest-fights footage. The example below includes a ‘match’ between fans of Brøndby and German-side Lokomotive Leipzig in 2018.
In Denmark football hooligans are referred to as ‘Roligans’. In the past few years there have been a number of high-profile, and violent, incidents that have caused controversy in Denmark and beyond.
In 2017, after a match between rivals Brøndby and FC Copenhagen, 44 men were charged with 123 crimes related to violent clashes that occurred inside and just outside of Brøndby Stadium. During another match between those sides, also in 2017, Brøndby fans pelted opposing players with dead rats.
Ten years earlier, members of the Neo-Nazi hooligan group Ultra White Pride were convicted on a number of assault charges. Ultra White Pride originated as a supporter group for the team Aarhus Gymnastikforening.