Basketball Hooligans: When JuveCaserta Supporters Took Things Too Far

Ultra supporters are known for being fanatical football (don’t call it soccer) fans.

When JuveCaserta Basket went on a mini-losing streak in the late 2000s, the South Italian basketball squad discovered first-hand what this meant.

The Ultras of Italy

Not hooligans, but far from casuals, “Ultras” are their own unique breed of fan and indeed, human.

One quick look at the Wikipedia entry for Ultras and Italy is plastered all over it.

Italy didn’t start the Ultras movement of “formal associations of football fans” that was football-crazed Brazil and its torcidas organizadas, which have been around since the 1930s.

Italy just took the concept to a whole other level.

Ultra groups like that of S.S. Lazio in Rome, known as the “Irriducibili” meaning irreducible, have become notorious for everything from racist chants to riots, and even murder.

Some long-time Ultra members are known to police, have received stadium bans, and on rare occasions, have their passports routinely confiscated before international UEFA matches, so they cannot travel.

This is definitely way out of bounds for basketball, which doesn’t enjoy the same level of fanfare in Europe as it does in hotbeds like Lithuania or the Philippines in Southeast Asia.

However, some clubs like JuveCaserta have serious ultra-supporter groups that are almost comparable to their footy counterparts.

By Supporters For Supporters

BSFS doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as Fubu, but the idea is the same.

Sporting Club Juventus Caserta was founded by a local group of basketball enthusiasts in Campania, Italy in 1951, for basketball enthusiasts.

The team’s history has been spotty ever since.

In its 72 years of existence, Caserta has experienced the highs of winning the Coppa Italia, the lows of relegation to the lowly fifth tier, and even bankruptcy.

By the time American journeyman Horace Jenkins arrived in 2008, the team was amid a resurgence and had returned to the Serie A, the first tier of Italian basketball.

Jenkins had seen some wild stuff in his day, he was part of the Detroit Pistons during the infamous Malice at the Palace brawl. But what he was about to witness next would shock him.

Threats Were Made and They Were Clear

Despite being the consensus pick to finish dead last and be banished back to the second tier once more, halfway through the 2008-09 season, JuveCaserta defied the odds and sat atop the standings.

In Jenkins’ own words, “I was killing guys who were making over $1 million and I was making $65,000.”

This was when the squad had a mini three-game skid due to some injuries and shit completely hit the fan.

30 minutes into what seemed like a routine practice, hundreds of JuveCaserta Ultra supporters stormed into the team’s gym, chanting all kinds of obscenities in Italian, walked onto the court, and demanded a team meeting be held to address the recent string of losses. All three of them!

Horace Jenkins recalled that this went on for almost an hour, with fans arguing back and forth with the coaches in Italian, while players just stood on the sidelines and watched in disbelief.

Not long after this, Jenkins got tired and left the practice turned protest, as he wasn’t getting paid enough for this bs.

According to one news article about the incident, “There was no physical contact made, but it came close, as there were clear and unequivocal threats made.”

What were the threats that were made?

JuveCaserta’s head coach at the time, Fabrizio Frates stated that among other things, supporters threatened to barricade entrances and hold players hostage in the arena if they lost their next game😯

Perhaps Detroit Pistons fans can try this tactic if their team’s current losing streak of biblical proportions continues.

If you enjoyed this story, you may also like The Team that has gone to every Final in Lithuanian Basketball League History or Wheelchair Basketball in Turkey Was a War Zone