Barra brava

Actions such as exhibition of choreographies (like throwing smoke bombs, firecrackers, confetti and balloons and displaying giant flags that cover entire stands, or part of them, before the match's start) to welcome the team when it goes out to the pitch; waving and displaying of flags, banners and umbrellas; and coordination of chants (that accompany playing bass drums and trumpets and end up being sung by part or the rest of their team's crowd in the stadium while jumping or applauding) during the whole match, are characteristic of their fervent behavior, whose purpose is to encourage their team while intimidating referees and rival fans and players, for which they also provoke violence.

[citation needed] They are similar to hooligan firms (from United Kingdom), torcidas organizadas (from Brazil), and ultras (originally from Italy but spread to the most part of Europe and Asia, Australia, and North Africa).

Their actions were limited to stadiums during home matches because they could not follow (at least the whole members) their teams to other cities very often, neither was violence provocation their objective, as violence arose spontaneously due to frustration caused by bad results of their team or as a way to influence the match through intimidation of rival players and referees with insults, throwing objects and occasionally entering onto the pitch to assault them.

The nickname comes from the rubber of bike inner tubes (filled with sand, and tied with wire at the ends) that this group used in some occasions to attack rival fans.

Thus, they became the first organized, violence-centered supporters' groups of football fans in the world (which later appeared as hooligan firms in United Kingdom, ultras in Italy and torcidas organizadas in Brazil).

Argentine journalist Amílcar Romero stated that, before the appearance of such groups, when a team played away, it was intimidated by home fans.

That had to be compensated with a theory that in the next decade (the 1950s) was rife: to every operating group with a mystical ability to produce violence, the only way to counter it is with another minority group, with as much or more mystique to produce violence.In 1958, media has begun to notice the existence of barras bravas after the riots during a match between Vélez Sarsfield and River Plate (at José Amalfitani Stadium), at which 18-year-old bystander Alberto Mario Linker was killed by police (he was accidentally hit in the head by a tear gas grenade thrown at point-blank range from a grenade launcher) when cops tried to disperse River Plate fans who were causing unrest in a terrace located behind one of the goals.

Until the early 1990s, barra brava members in Argentina rejected that term (many even today) for considering it pejorative, and prefer being denominated as fanbase/crowd's guides (largely because if a supporter group it's identified as a defined group of people that is involved in illegal acts, the Argentine justice can judge the members as participants of an illicit association, a legal figure that hardens the penalties).

[4] These groups deploy and wave flags (that in Argentine football slang are called trapos -rags), banners and umbrellas (with their team's uniforms), and use musical instruments (such as drums and, since the mid-2000s, trumpets) to accompany their chants.

The most characteristic flags are shaped like giant strips several meters in length (called trapos largos -long cloths- or tirantes -suspenders-), that are deployed from the top of the terrace to the bottom.

They often provide services to political and union leaders who hire them as agitator groups (during rallies and mass meetings, that in Argentina traditionally have people chanting like football crowds, playing drums and even shooting firecrackers), goon squads (clashing with supporters of other political parties, unions or police during demonstrations, protests, rallies and strikes), bodyguards, etc.

Members of barras bravas are scattered between the flags that they deploy. In the picture, barra brava of Club Atlético Nueva Chicago , from Argentina, in the middle of the crowd.
'Reception' is the name that football fans from some countries give to the choreography that the crowds exhibit in the stadiums for welcoming their teams when they go out to the pitch. In the picture, fans of Club Atlético Banfield , from Argentina, displaying a giant flag a few minutes before a match.
The Barras brava section of the stadium is recognizable for their flags, a characteristic unrivaled by other areas of the stadium has more quantity or density of such. In the picture, La Banda de Fierro is an organized supporter group of Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata .
Crowd of Club Deportivo 1º de Mayo (team that usually plays in one of the lowest divisions of Argentine football), from Chajarí , in the 1990s with its barra brava in the center (composed by a few tens of members in that moment).
La Pandilla ( Vélez Sarsfield 's barra brava ) located in the center of the main terrace of José Amalfitani Stadium (from Buenos Aires ) with its "suspenders".