BRITISH fans and players of German second-tier side St Pauli have hit back at British counter-terrorism police after the club’s Totenkopf symbol was included on a document distributed to raise awareness of potential terror groups.

The document, dated to June 2019, was distributed to medical staff, teachers and safeguarding children’s boards across England to help identify imagery which may be linked to harmful terror groups.

As reported in the Morning Star on Saturday, along with left-wing groups such as Greenpeace and the Communist Party of Britain, it also includes the fascist Britain First, the English Defence League and white-supremacist groups with imagery including swastikas, the nazi Iron Eagle symbol and the logo of White Power Worldwide.

The left-wing St Pauli — whose fans are vocally opposed to fascism, racism and other forms of discrimination — are listed in the five-page document along with the right-wing Football Lads Alliance and the Democratic Football Lads Alliance, two groups which have protested with right-wing figures such as Tommy Robinson. 

The Totenkopf, or skull and crossbones logo, has been synonymous with the Hamburg-based club since the 1980s, when left-wing intellectuals and punks of the city’s St Pauli district began to regularly attend the local team’s matches. 

The 2. Bundesliga club is well-known across the world for the left-wing ideology of their fans and a large number of fan groups across the world who identify with its pro-refugee and anti-fascist stance.

“It’s quite ridiculous,” said Ryan Wheeler of St Pauli Southampton — one of the club’s worldwide fan groups — in response to the news.

“Being a football fan is not a crime. It should never be a crime to support a football team. [St Pauli] is just a club which has left-wing values and morals and supporting a team that makes a stand for those things should never be associated with being a criminal or a terrorist,” he said.

This mentality has been mirrored by James Lawrence, a British defender who plays for the club. After screenshots of the document began to circulate on social media, he took to Instagram to say: “So this just happened …The UK government’s counter-terrorism police have decided to list @fcstpauli and our logo as an extremist symbol??

“All I can say is I’m proud of my team, proud of what they stand for! Proud of the values we have. Proud to play for @fcstpauli. Anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic. What’s not to like!”

His comments were backed up by the club on Twitter, with the English-language St Pauli account posting: “Well said, James Lawrence! Nothing for us to add really, apart from lots of love for James perhaps.”

This support from playing staff is valued highly by the fans, as Wheeler explains: “I think that was quite important and he called it out before the club. It’s really pleasing to see as a fan when the players get the politics of the club and it was clear from Lawrence’s post that he got the values of the club.”

Davey Tee of North East St Pauli — another English supporters’ group — voiced stronger opposition to the club’s inclusion though, suggesting: “The reality is that this is a conscious effort to label and identify anyone that may oppose the right-wing government. 

“It is a dangerous precedent as fans of the club will be targeted by the far right.”

Counter Terrorism Policing has been quick to defend the document and a statement from its senior national coordinator Dean Haydon said: “Our focus is definitely not on lawful protest, or legitimate causes taken up by activists across the country.

“We produce a range of guidance documents designed to assist front-line officers and counter terrorism colleagues to make informed decisions. The document in question clearly says that it was produced to help police and close partners identify and understand signs and symbols they may come across in their day-to-day working lives. 

“It explicitly states that many of the groups are not of counter-terrorism interest and that membership of them does not indicate criminality of any kind. To suggest this is anything else is both unhelpful and misleading.”

The force has said that it will not be confirming which of the groups or symbols are on the guidance simply for guidance, but fans of St Pauli are likely to continue discussing their place on the list for some time to come.