Laporta won his first elections, in July 2003, with promises of moral regeneration of Barça incubated in that platform known as Elefant Blau. One of the promises was to eliminate the Boixos Nois. Regardless of the judgment that his management deserves due to other behaviors, in this he was exemplary. And pioneer.
It started immediately, in the Gamper, closing the spaces of the stadium where they had been keeping banners, flags, brass knuckles, baseball bats and katanas. Of course, it closed their access to travel tickets, which they had been enjoying since time immemorial. It cost him accusations of anti-Barcelonism, which he ignored, and in 2004 an incident when after a handball match he was traveling from the Palau to the stadium. That triggered a full-fledged offensive, led by his brother-in-law, Alejandro Echevarría, which included the dismissal of accomplices within the club, the expulsion of members for bad behavior and the isolation of those who remained behind security screens. Little by little the situation became pacified, I won’t say normalized because what was “normal” in our football at that time was something else.
His efforts cost him more than one scare, a move and living surrounded by security, but his firmness was applauded and envied by those who lacked the moral courage to do the same. More so when the so-called Vic plot, dedicated to kidnapping and extorting drug traffickers, was dismantled and it turned out that one of the most notorious boixos expelled.
The Madrid thing came much later. Florentino arrived in 2000 and did not harass them. The confrontation came when, in 2013, in his second era, he decided to do without Mourinho, the idol of the Ultrasur, as is now Simeone of the Atlético Front. By then, two chants against the press were classic, in the opinion of the ultra-unjust group towards Mourinho: “Brand and Acegas chamber!” and “Manolo Lama, son of a bitch!”, which never worried either Florentino or Antiviolencia. At the end of Mourinho’s last game at the Bernabéu, in which those chants rose to the sky more than ever, a singular event occurred: four ringleaders ultrasur They went down to the grass and in the presence of club employees they presented him with a silver plaque.
They were more mourinhistas than Madridistas, and the departure of their spiritual leader irritated them. They turned against the club, that coincided with a fight between gangs, the veterans against the new ones who wanted to displace them, and Florentino decided to put an end to all that.
The first thing was to disperse them. Subscriptions are a service of the club, not a right of the member, as established in subsequent trials. So, apart from changing the animation area from behind the goal to the top of the back, he spread the ringleaders around the stadium so that they could not radiate their bad faith in a favorable environment.
This was accompanied by expulsions when bad behavior was detected in the stadium. Soon there was the loss of a small group that sang a chant against Messi in a match with Barça.
They fought back, of course. One day they filled the Castellana bridges with long banners against Florentino and ACS, another day they vandalized his wife’s grave. They tried to go to Castilla’s games, which was cut off by strict ticket control. Sometimes a group still appears on the move, buying tickets from the local team. In Braga, security ended up putting them in the area occupied by those who had bought tickets through Madrid, which caused problems.
At the time, when the club considered that the matter was tamed, they lowered the entertainment stands behind the goal again, where severe conditions must be met. You have to register through various clubs (La Clásica, Primavera Blanca…) whose representatives are responsible for them. They have a commitment to attend so that it is always full (only six absences are tolerated in a season). There is strict control at the entrance and they must wear white. The display of Spanish flags in national matches is avoided, so that they are not used against Basques and Catalans. The chants are dictated or agreed upon and the club’s instructions are followed to support this or that player in low hours when the rest of the field whistles for him. The result creates an artificial effect, far from the true heartbeat of football, but it does not cause problems.
These two examples serve for Miguel Ángel Gil, who continues with the old pretexts. Throwing someone out from time to time because there is no other option does not work. Announcing that balaclavas are going to be banned is grotesque. The country is changing, and the club’s entire image of modernity is tarnished every so often by that group, which is given such prominence that not so long ago, upon returning to Madrid after a bad result, the team came to offer them explanations before to go home to their families. For Cholo they will be good, it was already noted that he appreciates them, but for the club, no. The rest of the stadium already showed it with the whistle to the players when they made the mistake of not sparing the ritual applause for the barbarians.
