The Pre-Match. This evening (8 p.m.), Le Havre AC receives Valenciennes at the Stade Océane. The opportunity to look into the activity of the Barbarians, a private supporters’ club for meetings by the Covid-19.
A season to silence you. Spent tapping on the application of a social network, to try, despite everything, to live, together, the meetings of the HAC. The Covid-19 epidemic and its corollary, the closed door, cut the voice of the coyote, the emblem of Le Havre Barbarians, with a hundred supporters. “However, we had planned in this 2020-2021 season to renew the atmosphere, to work on new songs, new visuals”, regrets Johan Vattier, the president of the group created in 1993. “It had to be written that it would not be not the good year. Even the results confirm it. Whether their team wins or not, a supporter does not lose faith. But when it has been twelve years that we have struggled to bounce back, it becomes complicated. Hopefully on the ground, it does not become more so. ”
Even without the manner, the result of last Tuesday (victory at Chambly 1-0) will have at least had the merit of giving them a little balm in the heart after more than two months without the slightest success.
A supporter who no longer sings, who no longer pushes, therefore no longer has any reason to exist? Negative. Ultra is strong in chorus as much as it is strong in heart. Gathered in association, the Le Havre barbarians, when they do not gather in the kop, also have the “know-how” of raising funds. First to finance the purchase of their equipment. And if the recipe of the HAC fans bar, installed at the foot of the Océane Stadium, is a recurring means, the main one remains the organization of garage sales at the start of the season on the forecourt of the Heaven and Navy lair. Funds also to support, for several years, a cause or an association.
Each year an action
On several occasions, the Barbarians, members of the federation of HAC supporters, alongside Kop Ciel et marine and Kop Océane, have made donations for research into breast cancer. Because to be ultra is to enter religion or quite simply integrate a family, supporters are united. There too, for several years, they helped the association Des Wings pour Miguel in order to support the parents of this boy (the father is himself a member of the group) suffering from ATRX syndrome, creating neuromotor disorders.
Fatally, the news of recent months has prompted the Barbarians to help those who fight against Covid-19. “We had launched an electronic pot and even succeeded in digging up a stock of hydroalcoholic gel, initially thinking of helping the nursing staff of the GHH. But the actions of support towards the hospital were numerous during the first wave. We then turned to the nursing homes in the city. With € 3,500 collected, we were able to organize deliveries of comfort food. “
A nice sum, part of which was ultimately not spent. “However, the nursing home of the Little Sisters of the Poor, whose stocks were at their lowest, had launched an appeal for food and hygiene product donations at the end of 2020.”
“Workers as well as business leaders”
Delivery was made. The opportunity to pose, once again, for a souvenir photo and at the very least unusual alongside a sister wearing the official Barbarians scarf.
“The Covid made it possible to publicize certain actions of groups of supporters. But we did it before and we will do it after. ”
Among the ideas in the group’s boxes, cleaning the beach and organizing marauding for the homeless. “We are far from the image that we can peddle on the ultras. A group of supporters, however, is a reflection of society. You will meet workers as well as business leaders. Anywhere in France, if they will give almost everything for their team’s colors, it is certainly for the love of football, but maybe even more so because their club is a showcase of the city that they love more than anything. “
n Donations (milk, rusks, sugar, coffee, plain tea, canned food, rice, pasta, etc.) to the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home are always welcome at 7 rue des Gobelins (76 600 Le Havre)
Why the “Barbarians”?
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It is in reference to the rugby team that this group of supporters, with up to nearly 300 subscribers when the HAC was playing in Ligue 1 (for the last time during the 2008-2009 season), chose to baptize themselves “Barbarians”. Precisely the French Barbarians, a prestigious team within which players are invited (and not selected) to play international matches. This team to which we nevertheless lend the reserve role of the XV of France is known for its spirit of camaraderie and freedom. This is one of the reasons why Le Havre supporters chose to use the name. But it is mainly because she evolves in a tunic sky, navy and blue France. Sky and navy, like the colors of the first players of the Barbarians, English this time. Students from Cambridge and Oxford. As for a certain HAC born 149 years ago.
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