Grasili Renegades

Logo of the Grasili Renegades.

The Grasili Renegades are a professional soccer team from Grasili, Sayaffallah that participates in the association known as Sayaffallan Royal League.

History

The Grasili Pink Monarch Lions formed as a project by college students in 1971 as a counter-culture movement making fun of the monarchy and the popular traditions of Sayaffallah. The team was denied membership because of its tendency to be "non-serious" in the SRL until 1979 when a lone member of the SRL commission flipped giving the team the support it needed to become an official team. In honor of that flip vote the team was unanimously renamed the Grasili Renegades a name it holds to this day with its comical pink lion mascot known as Sultini the Lion.

Controversy

In 1974 the Grasili Pink Monarch Lions were taken to the High Court for allegedly violating the laws concerning respect for the country's tradition and monarch. The case was highly contentious and featured marches by students calling for more freedom of speech and an opening of the country to dissent pointing out the critical revolution of 1900 as a benchmark for their position. The High Court found the Grasili Lions to be in contempt but also ruled that their name was an exercise of essential free speech and therefore not in violation of any law. The double standard of this ruling caused the Grasili Lions to appeal the fine to the highest court the Supreme Court of Sayaffallah which ruled the fine could not be assessed as the prior ruling found the Grasili Lions to not be in violation of the law. The Supreme Court further stated that because the speech was not menacing or intended to tear down the institutions but instead was aimed at levity it was not a violation.

The case is frequently cited to this day as a benchmark ruling on the status of free speech within Sayaffallah in textbooks and case law within the courts of Sayaffallah. The ruling has been appealed only once with the Supreme Court refusing any further hearings of the matter calling it a closed matter unless the laws should be changed governing free speech and speech directed towards national institutions or traditions.

Colours and kit

The colours of the team are hot pink and white.

Grasili Ultras and fan traditions

The Grasili Ultras are a group of super fans who attend all the games and dye their hair a brilliant bright pink color and sometimes their faces a light pink to contrast their hair. These fans parade into the stadium an hour before the games and spend the time singing the songs of the Grasili Renegades all the way up to game time. At game time they all stand and they chant at the top of their lungs the official club chants honoring the legacy and the history of the team and then they go into complete silence rendering the entire stadium into total silence and right before the opposing team kicks a goal the silence erupts into a loud tumult of noise to distract the players and then quickly hushes the entire stadium into total silence.

This transition of total silence into massive amounts of noise is called the "Lion's Roar" as it is totally unpredictable but typically right before a goal or when directed by the leader of the ultras standing at the lower right hand part of the stadium causing all of the fans to stand and make noise and when the leader sits everyone sits causing the stadium to once again return to total quiet.

Stadium

Renegade Stadium lit up for a match.

The Renegades play in Renegade Stadium with an occupancy of 135,000 with 5,000 ocupancy standing rows which are elevated on an incline at field level on the visitor side of the field allowing for fans to be closer to the action while the rest of the stadium are premium recliners with enough space to lean back and kick their feet up making the stadium experience even more interactive. Additionally every row in the stadium except for the standing section is serviced by luxury dining providing spectators with the ability to eat a full course meal should they desire it and to take in the game at the same time. The Ultras section is marked out by over 25,000 bright pink chairs that unoccupied make the pattern of a roaring pink lion each of the chairs is plush and able to recline as well however ultras tend to be on their feet frequently and silent during parts of the game only to roar during other parts.

The Stadium also has an interactive Hall of Champions as the Grasili Renegades have won 6 National Championships and are considered the rivals of the Bellissimomare Hammerheads and thus much of the museum focuses on the history, the controversies, the fans and the rivalry as well as a section dedicated just to the championships won by the team. In addition to this museum there is a large enclosure spanning the entire length of the home field wall that is accessible by ticketed spectators on their way into the home section. As spectators enter the tunnel they see the tunnel is a massive 80 ft tall glass enclosure with several lions inside bathed in non-harmful pink light during games to give the effect of the lions being pink lions. The lions can run over the heads of the tops of the spectators as the top of the tunnel is reinforced glass. The lion enclosure is accessible outside of the stadium in a special King of the Jungle exhibit which features interpretive signs about the habitat of the lions and their feeding as well as their scheduled re-release into the wild. All lions in the enclosure are lions being rehabilitated so that they can be re-released within a 2 year time span. As such the enclosure is full of typical plants and environment that they would find in their normal habitat.