On Saturday the iconic San Siro, the Scala del Calcio, witnessed a very strange scene. Early in the second half of Inter’s Serie A clash with Sampdoria the ultras, the hardcore fans, began to desert their places in the Curva Nord of the stadium.

Not only did they leave, the leaders of the group demanded that everyone else in the stand – including those not part of any ultra group – also leave. Reports emerged of paying fans being pushed, kicked and insulted until they left their spots, including women and children.

The reason for this strange display? Former ultra leader Vittorio Boiocchi had been shot and killed in an ambush in Milan earlier that day. Around an hour before kick-off unknown assailants on via Fratelli Zanzottera fired five semi-automatic rounds, killing the 69-year-old instantly. La Repubblica reported one of the people on the motorbike was also shot.

Boiocchi, who had just returned from a meeting with the Curva Nord Interista, the largest ultra group, wasn’t attending the game. He had been given a football banning order in addition to 10 previous criminal convictions and 26 years in prison.

Not, many would argue, a man to be celebrated. So why were ordinary fans being forced to leave the stadium in a show of ‘respect’? The answer lies in the complicated world of Italy’s ultras.

While many countries could lay claim to the modern ultra movement, which draws from many football cultures, its genesis lies in the Bel Paese in the 1950s and 60s. The colourful displays and plumes of smoke seen around the world, including in Scotland, can be traced back to those early days.

The ultra movement really took off in the so-called Years of Lead, which saw close to 20 years of social and political upheaval in Italy as far-right and hard-left factions carried out kidnappings, bombings and assassinations.

The terraces reflected the turmoil – if Britain had punk then Italy had the ultras. They were named and characterised by their fanatical devotion to their team, but also to their group. They railed against the norms of society but had strict rules of their own – never sit down, never back down, never stop singing. Many had, and continue to have, strong political views that went along with it.

The Herald: Lazio fans attend a Serie A matchLazio fans attend a Serie A match (Image: Getty)

Lazio’s Irriducibili are notorious for their far-right sympathies, with swastikas, Celtic crosses and anti-semitic slogans an all-too-regular sight. Boyhood fan Paolo Di Canio, who has a tattoo dedicated to Benito Mussolini, gave a fascist salute to the Curva Nord following a derby with Roma in 2005.

There exist, too, hard-left ultra groups. Livorno’s hardcore fans, hailing from a working class city by the Adriatic Sea, regularly display communist symbols at their matches, with partisan songs like Bella Ciao or Bandiera Rossa turned into terrace anthems. Club legend Cristiano Lucarelli wore the shirt number 99 in honour of the club’s biggest ultra group, which was founded in 1999, and once celebrated a goal for the Italian Under-21 side by unveiling a t-shirt of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

It's a complicated world, with alliances constantly made and broken both within and between ultra groups. An agreement known as ‘twinning’ sees supporters of two different teams adopt a non-aggression pact between themselves and even show up to fight hated rivals.

Inter’s ultras are ‘twinned’ with Lazio as well as other right-wing ultra groups. Indeed, a Varese ultra, Daniele Belardinelli was hit by a car and killed fighting alongside Inter fans ahead of a game against Napoli.

If politics has always been a part of the movement, a more recent development has been the influence of organised crime.

Traditionally – if not officially – ultra groups have been allowed to buy tickets in bulk from their clubs, a practice which enticed mafia clans to infiltrate some of the country’s biggest supports.

In July of 2016 a Juventus ultra, Raffaello Bucci, was found dead at the bottom of a viaduct in Fossano.

The Herald: Juventus fans during a Champions League match at Stamford BridgeJuventus fans during a Champions League match at Stamford Bridge (Image: Getty)

In the year before his death he had been given a sort of liaison role with the club, who were looking to reduce the influence of the notorious Drughi ultra group within their stadium.

Juve had provided tickets on credit to the group in the past but were looking to reduce the number going to the hardcore support. However, unbeknownst to them, some of those briefs were being re-sold at a profit by people linked to the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia.

According to a Rai report in 2018, Bucci – who had an accountancy degree – was put in charge of the financial side of things and, for two years, his phone was wiretapped by investigators.

The same programme featured  an interview with Andrea Puntorno of the Bravi Ragazzi ultras group.

"I bought two houses and a bakery," he claimed. "There were 600-700 of us, but not all from Turin. We took care of the tickets, and made some money.

"Where did the tickets come from? From Juventus, it's normal isn't it? It's always been like that.

"We did it with no problems, we were charging up to €200-300 depending on the game.

"If we couldn't get enough? We'd make a record of anyone who threw firecrackers, on the agreement that Juventus would give us tickets."

Juventus have never denied providing tickets and there is no suggestion the club was aware of the links to organised crime.

Confronted by investigators, Bucci began co-operating with the investigation. It left him in a difficult place: working for Juventus, working with the police, trying to satisfy the ultras and under fear of reprisals from the mafia. On July 7 of 2016 he took his own life by jumping from the viaduct.

Three years later one of Lazio’s ultra leaders, Fabrizio Piscitelli – nicknamed Diabolik ­- was shot and killed on a Rome park bench. He had links to both the far-right and the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, and was honoured by a huge banner in Inter’s Curva Nord.

Boiocchi, who was killed on Saturday night, had previously been seen in the company of alleged ‘Ndrangheta members. Police say his killing was “a professional hit”.

Earlier this year Italy elected what many have called its most right-wing government since the days of Benito Mussolini.

Largest party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy, an heir to the neo-fascist MSI), led by Giorgia Meloni, formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the party named for a football chant.

In 2018 Salvini was pictured with Luca Lucci, a leader of Milan’s Curva Sud Milano group at San Siro, as they celebrated their 50th anniversary. In May Lucci was sentenced to seven years in prison for drug trafficking and other offences.

There is, of course, no suggestion that Salvini had any knowledge of any such activity and it’s not unusual for politicians to gladhand with people they know nothing about.

What’s clear though is that in Italy the worlds of politics, football and organised crime are uncomfortably close.