"Your Ultimate Guide to Tifo" by Youssef El Berrichi
Founded in 1949, Raja Club Athletic (also known as Raja Casablanca), is a professional soccer club based in Casablanca, Morocco. In 2019, it celebrated one of the most exciting derbies with a tribute to fans and the sport itself. Super fans known as “Ultras” from Raja Casablanca and Wydad (their rival team) displayed choreographed visual art, called tifo.
Tifos include flags, signs, and banners held up in the stands of a stadium during a match. Game-day visual displays emerged alongside ultras (organized groups of die-hard soccer fans) in the late 1960s and appeared in Morocco in 2005. Their spectacular contributions to the game are designed to lift spirits, to impress, to intimidate, and ultimately to send a message. The real question is: who is the message for?
Decorated with political imagery and cultural references, tifos act as a unique tool within the “educational arena” of the soccer stadium. During the 2019 Raja-Wydad derby, tifos from both sides shared breathtaking displays of art taking up a fair portion of the stadium. One message stated: “Dear ‘Journalists’, learn to code.”
Yet another tifo was raised by Raja fans with their signature green color rising in smoke with a flag reference to Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel “A Clockwork Orange”. This dystopian story illustrates the tension between order in society and individual liberty, highlighting the dangers of unrestrained personal freedom and uncontrolled state power. This explanation is scripted by the novel itself, not the artist - leaving the true meaning up to the viewer’s imagination.
Wydad fans responded by raising a fire-breathing dragon above the crowd, seemingly “burning the stands” with flames.
Some tifos, as seen in the case of the dragon, are designed to rile up a crowd and instill fear in the opponent. Others seek to teach onlookers a lesson about the society they live in, as seen in the famous “Room 101” tifo:
Room 101 is a place in “1984”, a novel written by George Orwell. The room is a torture chamber in which a political party subjects prisoners to their deepest fears. Within the context of the novel, the purpose of Room 101 is to break down the prisoners' will to resist. Here, the message could be interpreted in many ways, some beyond the walls of the stadium and reflecting on society as a whole.
From a social lens, tifos are an example of symbolic interaction. They address particular effects of communication as a frame of reference, ultimately shaping individual behaviors through art. Through repeated taunting and meaning-making, the artists behind the scenes give all audience members a full view of their political heart. In this way, tifosi (the makers of tifo) seek to ignite curiosity and spark change in their communities. Each tifo is a masterpiece that allows the audience to interpret the meaning. They represent the deepest passions of fans, the humans behind the art: rebellion, pride, and rapturous delight.
Sources:
Alomari, Mamer. Political activists or violent fans? Understanding the Moroccan Ultras perspective through social media discourse analysis. Capstone Collection, 2019.
Bourkia, Abderrahim. Ultras in the City: A sociological inquiry into urban violence in Morocco. Trivent Publishing, 2019.
Lefevre, Raphael. Morocco, Algeria and the Maghreb’s Cold War. The Journal of North African Studies, 2016.
Geerts, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973.
Merton, Robert K. Social Theory and Social Structure. The Free Press, 1968.
Youssef El Berrichi is an Arabic teacher at Amideast Education Abroad in Rabat, Morocco.
