Interview with representatives of Boixos Nois (Barcelona).

1) Hi! Please introduce yourself to our readers, much as possible.

- Hello, we are the Boixos Nois (BBNN for short), the hooligan group of F.C.Barcelona. We follow our team despite the brutal repression we have been suffering during these last two decades from the police and without any kind of support from the team’s staff. We have been expelled from entering the stadium of our own club for seventeen years and they also don’t give us any kind of help to travel with the team for road games. In spite of this, our loyalty remains unbreakable to this day.

2) Tell us about your band. By whom and when it was founded? How many people are in it is? What is the average age of the participants?

- Boixos Nois was founded in “Gol Sud” (which is a zone of seats inside the stadium) in 1981 by a heterodox group of people of different ages, social status and ideology bounded together by a strong passion for Barça and Catalonia.

Nowadays the group is composed of approximately 200 members; we have a wide range of people from different ages in our ranks. (from 16 to 55 years old). But the vast majority of them are 30-35.

3) In the region of Europe, where most of our readers live, hooligan resources in the interview ask a mandatory set of standard and boring first questions. One of these questions is to remember your first away match and the first fight. But, in an interview with you, this question really looks interesting, because your football fan life is so unlike Eastern Europe. So what happened at your first away match? Under what circumstances there was your first fight at a football?

- The first official road game that we assisted was on the 7th of march 1982 in Alicante to watch Hércules C.F-F.C. Barcelona, which ended in 2-2.

Our first confrontations were with the fans of “Espanyol”, our rival team in the city. In the early 80s, F.C.Barcelona fans moved massively to Sarria to witness the Espanyol - Barça, both groups shared the same stands without any physical separation, which made brawls throwing eggs and bags full of piss with “Peña Manigua” (at that moment, Espanyol didn’t have a hooligan group yet) common. There were confrontations both in the stands and in the street at the end of the match.

Those confrontations later moved to basketball matches, when Espanyol still had a basketball team (in the present day they don’t have one). In the “Palau d’Esports”(their court) located on Lleida street, brawls were frequent, and Espanyol fans always ended up on the losing side. All this was what caused Espanyol fans to make a hooligan group at last.

4) Is there a movement of "Barcelona" other hooligan groups other than your? Tell us about the “Boixos Nois” structure. That's a lot of small groups? Are you divided by area of residence, or otherwise?

- There are other hooligan groups in Barcelona, but they support lower leagues teams, so we don’t have many confrontations with them.

These are our different sections, all of them belonging to Boixos: "Casuals FCB", "Malditos Bastardos", "Public Enemies FCB", "Cachorros".

The group has always been nurtured by people from several catalan areas such as: Hospitalet de Llobregat, Sants, El Valles, Girona and other regions of the catalan territory. Currently, in the rest of the Spanish territory we have two active sections in La Rioja and Valencia.

5) In 2016, you celebrated the 35th birthday of the firm. What event, do you personally consider your most important achievement for all these years?

In our 40 years of history, we have lived a ton of moments, achieved uncountables achievements and celebrated so many events, that it’s difficult to pick up one.

But if we have to choose one, it will always be when any of our brothers who were deprived of freedom are once again among us.

6) A well-known fact is your difficult relationship with the club management, and with Joan Laporta, in particular. On your confrontation with the three presidents of the club compose legends. Tell us about it in more detail.

- Before the arrival at the presidency of Joan Laporta, we had a cordial coexistence with all the former presidents, the president with whom we had the best relationship with was Mister Josep Lluis Nuñez, may he rest in peace, we will always keep respect and a great esteem towards him.

The arrival of Laporta meant the end of our presence in the stadium, thanks to his lies and manipulations, helped by the media and the police, we were starting to be limited as a group, they even threw our banners and material used to cheer the team stored in the stadium.

7) We know that some members of your group a lifetime ban on visiting club matches. Can they bypass this ban and still get into matches, or are you not even trying? For example, we know that you were without tickets in Valencia. And, as it was understood about their purchase, you did not even think.

- After all these years without being able to enter the stadium and cheer our team, the group started to develop a style more centered on the streets and less concerned about cheering. For this reason, we are not worried about being able to enter or not a stadium, it’s something we have just assumed so we focus on the aspect of defending the honor of our group on both our city and in others. Regarding the prohibitions to access the stadium that some of our members have, they are the ones who decide if they want to enter or not.  

8) And we’ll continue this topic right away, while the memories from leaving are still fresh for you. Videos from Valencia instantly spread throughout the European information resources. What happened that day? Did you agree with “Yomus” to fight under the stadium, or did everything happen by chance? Why did they run away from you in their city?

- The Yomus are a historical rival for us, in May 2019 we played the final of the King's Cup in Seville, we were supposed to meet them to fight the night before the game but they did not attend the appointment, after this they tried to win the battle using lies and mockery on social networks, which motivated us to go to their city a few months later for the match between Valencia-F.C.Barcelona, loyal to our style, we decided to attack them in the bar they use to gather before a match. Regarding your question to why they fled in their city, it’s something that they should answer themselves. We defended our honor and demonstrated what the reality was in terms of potential of both groups, a thing that months before they didn’t have the courage to do.

9) What types of punishments are there in Spain for football hooligans? For that you can get punished fines, and for that you can get a real prison term?

- Right now in Spain, the hooligan movement is in it’s darkest hours due to the high repression of the police and the anti violence committee. You are banned to show anything related with hooligan groups inside a stadium, be it a flag, a poster whatever. A simple curse word, can become a fee of about 3.000-6.000 euros, and a fight can end up costing you 60.000. Regarding prison sentence, it is given to people who commit violent crimes (an act in which you inflict serious injuries or kill a person) or in cases of repeated offence. This makes this lifestyle very difficult to follow with the passion it requires and the atmospheres of the stadiums are becoming more and more shameful. We consider Spain to be one of the countries which the strongest laws in this area, making our group the first and most punished by this set of measures.

10) I would also like to know about the confrontation with fans of “Real Madrid”. What can you say about the guys from “Ultras Sur” and your enmity with them?

- Ultras sur is another one of our historical rivals with a lot of confrontations throughout our history, the most recent one in the final of the “Copa del rey” in 2014 held in Valencia, and after a brawl with them, a few of their most distinguished members ended up badly injured.

They have always been a serious group regarding the national scene, they are in the doldrums due to a similar war than the one we have with FCB staff, their president Florentino Perez has forbidden them to enter the stadium since 2015.   

11) Your neighbors from “Espanyol”. Do they bring you any inconvenience in your city? What can you say about them? It is known that there have been murders in the history of your confrontation.

- In the 90’s the fight with them was fierce, it crossed the borders of football and became a daily war, “Brigadas blanquiazules” were at that time a very powerful group. About the murder, it was the result of the hatred there was between both groups and the tension that was lived in the streets of Barcelona at that time. Repression turned against them, and, unable to survive this, they disappeared as an active group a decade ago.

The current groups of Espanyol are nowhere near their predecessors, they are just a bunch of cheerleaders disguised with North Face jackets and playing “how to be a hooligan”.

12) Regarding the "Espanyol". Not so long ago time, we could see the news about the situation, which happened between your two guys and one of the Brigadas Blanquiazules. As far as I could understand, you beat one of them in the hospital during a visit in support of doctors. What can you say about this situation? The feud with another club more important to you guys than the total risk of an epidemic?

- To us, rivalry is above everything, and in this particular case, the man who was assaulted is the historical leader of “Brigadas Blanquiazules”, we didn’t like the context of the situation, but destiny wanted to be this way, and we had a score to settle with this man in particular. If they want to recover their honor, they know where to find us, we won’t back off.

13) It is also very interested in the question about your political views. It so happens that a lot of people in Europe believe that the "Barcelona" have more football fans mostly people with leftist views. Why do you think this opinion has come to be?

- Barcelona has always been a club linked to catalonia and its history, and we will never reject that, no matter the ideologies we may have as individuals.

14) How do people with radical right views and left anti-globalists manage to get along on the same football sector? Do conflicts arise between them?

- First things first, our top priority is Boixos Nois and Barça, we put aside our personal political thoughts and ideologies. This is something that has always made us special and different to the rest, our group goes above everything. There are no conflicts between us even if we have different political views, ideologies...

15) Continuing the previous questions, we want to touch on the political order in your country. As far as we understand, from the first days of your existence you held separatist views regarding your place (social and political) in Spain. We think this question is very interesting, because a lot is not clear to us. In theory, it turns out that the right-wing guys from Catalonia should be the other way around for the integrity of Spain and the strong position of the region, as one of the centers (economic and cultural) of the country. But how are things really? Should, in your opinion, Catalonia have more freedom as part of Spain and become even more autonomous and independent than it is now?

- I cannot give you an answer, because I am answering your questions as a group and not as an individual, there are different positions on this topic, so I prefer skipping political questions because we consider us a pure hooligan group and we don’t define ourselves politically. 

16) A well-known fact is that because of the extreme (both left and right) views in your fan movement, you almost never had a strong friendship with other clubs. Today we can see how alliances come into fashion on the continent. Everyone is trying to find a clear (and not) allies in other countries. For example, Germany became such a country for Ukraine. But how does this trend affect BN? Are there those in Europe with whom you have, well, at least communication?

- We have never wanted to make friends, we are a very closed group and reluctant to form brotherhoods with other groups. Several members do maintain a friendship on a personal level with members of other groups, but always as individuals and not as group.

17) Perhaps it will not be an exaggeration to say that today's “Barcelona” is one of the clubs that most of all feel the influence of “Modern Football”. You can say that your club is at the forefront of those who promote this phenomenon. Commercials, Messi t-shirts in every village anywhere in the world, a full stadium of tourists ... Is there room left for real old school fans at Camp Nou? It is known that Spain is a country with not the highest income among the population and huge unemployment. As usual fans manage to get not cheap tickets for the matches of your favorite club?

- In Spain the abusive prices and the disrespect to the lifelong fan is making first division football to lose all its essence turning emblematic fields such as camp nou into amusement parks for tourists and wealthy people, and a cemetery as far as the real fans are concerned.

We totally reject everything related to modern football, being our team one of the greatest flagships of it, we consider ourselves to be the last resistance. With neither help or support and hated by everybody we continue to fight and we have the intention to continue for much longer.

18) In our opinion, the following question is logical here.Today, on the continent, we can see examples of the clubs, the fans who, feeling the tension in relations with the leadership,found a solution to the problem of attending matches of their teams in other sports.For example: water polo, handball, indoor soccer, and so on.Arose whether BBNN desire to switch to visit matches of "Barcelona" in other sports?

- The strong repression we suffer from the police and the club limits our participation in any of the different sections of it. (Be it basketball, futsal…) Another reason is that there is no national hooligan movement around these sports, which discourages us and we don’t find enough adrenaline for us to make any movements towards any of these sports.

19) In one of the previous answers you said that you never wanted to find friends in other countries.But also interested in and your interest in the enemies.Which European mobs would you like to fight with personally? And for what reason would this particular opponent?

- We don’t have any preference in that matter, we always praise the predisposition of British mobs during their visits to our city and we have enjoyed good moments against them. On the other hand we don’t share the behaviour of Italian and German groups that prioritize a poser attitude, mobilizing several thousands of people together from the city center, which makes direct confrontations impossible and facilitates the task of the police who bounds and escorts them throughout the day. We also have a special interest to fight groups that have formed a brotherhood with our national rivals.

20) How active are the Barcelona hooligans involved in contact martial arts? Which sport is the most popular among the guys in your band?

- The evolution within the European scene also implies a greater degree of preparation and many of our members practice or even competes in contact martial arts (Boxing, Kick Boxing MMA, BJJ…). The most practiced are boxing, followed by MMA.

21) Crime and football. A widely known fact about Polish hooligans, many of whom are involved not only in the war of hooligan firms, but also in the dismantling of criminal gangs. One way or another, in almost all parts of Europe football hooligans tend to crime. Somewhere it’s providing drug trafficking, somewhere extortion and kidnapping, and somewhere the real organized mafia. As with this case in Spain?

- We prefer not to answer this question.

22) Despite the fact that we stipulated the absence of acute political issues in the interview, we still cannot ignore the issues of interest to us,because another chance to ask from someone from your country, for us, may not be very soon.Among other things, interested in your opinion about an organization such as E.T.A. During his more than 50letnyuyu history, these people have done a lot of things, arguing their actions struggle ha independence of Catalonia. What is being said about this organization in your region nowadays?

- As a society, we are totally opposed against any type of terrorism that kills innocent people indiscriminately.

23) We can not ignore the theme of COVID-19. Spain - one of the countries that are most affected by this virus.However, now we can already see reports that Maria Jesus (Minister of Finance) reports on the country's readiness to quarantine. Is such a decision premature? And anyway, what do you think was the reason for such a strong outbreak of the disease in your country?Spaniards poorly comply with quarantine, or is the reason for something else?

- The government acted and took measures very late, and a lot of them wrong. There has been a disastrous management of the health department too, our health workers work with disastrous conditions for a country like ours in which we are supposed to have the best of the best. As of today, we have been confined for 6 weeks and we still are in a critical condition regarding deaths and infections. During this time, the government predicted that we would have improved, like many other countries that have showed a superior capacity at stopping the virus.

24) As far as possible to understand, reading your news, the Spanish government will not hurry with the opening of the tourist season this year. Can Catalonia in such circumstances to hope for a way out of the crisis,if one of the main items of income for you is a steady stream of tourists from year to year?

- The dates given by the government to reopen the tourist season are not very optimistic, a lot of business and shops won’t be able to open this summer, which will translate into a great economic loss and a great stab to the country’s stability. We stand in solidarity and show respect to all those who have suffered the loss of family members, as well as all those people who have been fighting and collaborating to stop the virus.

25) What do you think about the changes in the World that will occur in connection with the COVID-19 epidemic?What will football be like after the global quarantine is over?

- We think that control over population is going to be increased, and the spread of fear will make people easier to manipulate and to make them easily accept restrictions of their human rights. For what we now as of today, all football matches will be played closed-doors until 2021, a thing that goes against the principles of this sport. We do not know what will bring us at the time of displacement with our team, now the situation is quite complex and we do not dare to predict a clear future. For the sake of football and its fans, we hope everything returns to normal.

26) We know that the whole Spanish ultras community opposed the early resumption of the championship. Except Boixos Nois. Is it true? Why didn't BBNN hold this promotion under the hashtag #NoEsFútbolEsLaLiga?

- Yes its true. We were contacted by a hooligan group to talk about this initiative. When Boixos Nois were expelled from the stadium back in 2003, no Spanish hooligan group showed any sign of support to our situation. We’ve been on the streets for almost 20 years, being. Just a hooligan group and although we are against modern football and everything that it represents, it wouldn’t have coherence for us, to show and kind of concern for things like that.

27) The national teams of Spain and Ukraine made their way to the future Euro2021. And, if we all survive in today's situation, then many Ukrainians will go to Romania to support their national team. Go whether Spanish hooligans in Romania next summer? Are there any BBNN supporters of the Spanish national football team?

- Due to sporting rivalry and political differences, within the hooligan-national scene, there is no strong union around to follow the team. The type of the fan that follows the national team in major tournaments has nothing to do with hooliganism, they are better classified as tourists. In our group there is people who feel identified with the national team and others who do not.

28) Another theme that connects Ukraine and Spain is the presence of "Albacete" Ukrainian player Roman Zozulya.We have this man has boundless respect among fans of the absolute majority of clubs.He has a reputation as a patriot of his country, a loyal friend and has repeatedly helped our military in the fight against the occupying forces of Russia. In turn, in Spain he had the prolonged conflict with the fans, "Rayo Vallecano" who called him a Nazi. What can you say about the fans of the Club of Madrid with the radical leftist views?Does BBNN have a story of enmity with Bukaneros?

- They are our enemies; we have faced each other in several occasions, here in Barcelona and in their neighbourhood Vallekas. It’s a rivalry that it’s not going to disappear and we are sure that we will meet again. It is a highly politicized group and highly involved in social activism that has great support from far-left entities, associations and parties. To us, they don’t have the essence of a hooligan group, because the vast majority of things they do have a political background.

29) Thank you for your time and wish you good health! What do you wish our readers?

- First of all we would like to thank troublemaker for their interest in our group, secondly we expect that through this interview, we are able to show to your readers our thoughts and our way of understanding this life. Finally we encourage all European hooligans to keep fighting against repression.