Match 10: Lazio

Lazio’s home stand is the Curva Nord of the Olimpico, and according to research by the newspaper, La Repubblica, they are the sixth-most supported team in the country. Their most famous Ultras group is gli irriducibili Lazio, and so as is normal, in the weeks before the match I set out to find myself some fans to interview. Going about this in my normal way, a quick Google search found me some forums to join. Joining them, however, was not as easy as liberating confectionary from infants as it 

normally is. Now, normally, in order to sign up for a forum you need to fill in an online form with your details, before the final step in which you need to write a randomly-generated code that pops up on screen. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. The Lazio forums, I guess, get trolled quite frequently and/or they’re deeply paranoid. This manifests itself in requiring aspiring forum members to answer a very specifically Lazio-themed test as the final step, rather than the typing-of-the-random-code norm.

So, on one of the forums, after filling in my username etc, I was presented with the statement:

Giorgio Chinaglia è: ………..

(Giorgio Chinaglia is: ………..)

Who he was exactly, we’ll come to soon, but in reality, he is only one thing: dead. Without wanting to be a pedant (but really, I spent days trying to find out the answer, so I’m going to be a bloody a pedant about this), there is only one possible and correct answer. But the computer refused to accept that ‘dead’ was it. Philosophically speaking, at least for me, all that we are ceases to be when we shuffle off to wherever and whatever’s next. Unless, in an effort to psychologically shield themselves, the Lazio fans deny the reality of Giorgio Chinaglia’s death. Either that or they’ve interred him somewhere in a Schrodinger’s Cat-style experiment (which, as they arranged his corpse into the box, I imagine would still have hammered home the fact of his passing), but nonetheless, the correct answer to the question remains: dead.

After a few days of repeatedly trying various adjectives, nicknames and things of that nature, all that I was able to achieve was to get myself locked out of the site for exceeding the number of permissible incorrect answers in single sessions. I was almost at the point of investigating all of the various idioms in Italian for ‘dead’, à la the Monty Python dead parrot sketch, when a friend came through for me with the answer! Eureka! (There’s that Greek-influence again). I won’t tell you what it is so as to preserve their much-valued privacy, but needless to say, it was something that only a laziale would know. And it had bugger all to do with death.

..........

Match 9: Livorno

The Italian word for ‘twin’ is gemello. Most teams have other clubs with whom their fans are friendly, and these relationships are known as gemellagi (twinships, like there are with towns). For me, with my Scottish brain, I can’t quite get my head around having any feelings for opposing teams and their fans other than dislike and a strong hope they get humped on match days, but hey, maybe I’m in the minority. It always helps when the other team isn’t in your league or even country, so that then you don’t have to see their fans’ gurning faces twisted in joy as they score another goal against you. Livorno’s fans are in luck then, because thanks to their political leanings they have an international network of supporters, from France through Greece to Turkey, with gemellagi with Olympic Marseille and AEK Athens, among others. One of the most prominent of their foreign-based supporters’ groups is based in Germany, where its members don’t seem to check or reply to their emails, but no matter. I checked out their website which all seems very earnest and well-minded, so they get ten points for effort, but less so for their mastery of the English language.

As you might imagine, Livorno’s fans aren’t bosom buddies with teams whose supporters are more right-minded, so supporters of Inter and Verona can expect a spicy welcome. Lazio too, and famed peacemaker and level-headed chap, Paolo Di Canio, once made a fascist salute during a game between the two teams. 

Away from football and politics, the city rivalry between Livorno and Pisa is famed for its strength. This manifests itself in numerous examples of graffiti around Livorno of: “PISA MERDA” (“FUCK PISA” - their capitals, not mine). There are a couple of expressions they use to bicker amongst themselves with: “Meglio un morto ’n casa che un pisano all’uscio” (better a death at home than a Pisan at the door) snapped back with: “Le parole le porta via il vento, le biciclette i livornesi” (words are whisked off by the wind, and bikes by the Livornese). 

Now, without wanting to offend citizens of either of the cities, neither one of them is anything to really write home about, and yes, I’ve seen the Leaning Tower and the hundreds of tourists all pretending to either prop it up or push it over while grinning for a photo.

This rivalry is classic campanilismo. This is something that if you’ve ever read about Italy before you’ll surely have already come across, but for the uninitiated, campanile means bell tower or steeple. If you’ve been here you will no doubt have noticed just how many churches there are, and so campanilismo is a love of or pride in your local area (i.e. the area in which you can hear your church bell tolling). In a country where many people are born and live most of their lives in the same house or street (certainly in previous generations, although the current financial crisis and high-youth employment is forcing some younger people to venture further afield for work), and often with family members next door or in the building round the corner, the idea of ‘home, sweet home’ runs deep. And one thing that people love more than home comforts is someone or something to mistrust. How could you go wrong if your enemy was an entire town just down the road? Nothing like a common villain to build town unity and identity. And I certainly wouldn’t encourage the people of Pisa and Livorno to unite, hold hands and sing songs, because life would be boring without a bit of a grudge and bile, no? Plus of course, the resulting burglaries and bicycle thefts would overstretch the respective police departments to breaking point.

Match 8: Atalanta

Atalanta supporters have a reputation for being a little, let’s say, prickly. They had one of the most respected Ultras groups in Italy called the Brigate Neroazzurre (BNA), which itself branched off from another organised fan-group, the Atalanta Commandos. The BNA wasn’t averse to clashes with rival teams’ supporters, which found a great deal of popularity with the younger members of the group, but which also caused friction between themselves and other groups in the Curva. This mentality led to confrontations with supporters’ groups of Genoa, Torino and both the Milanese teams, and over the years their reputation as being somewhat calda was exacerbated and spread across the nation. 

Not content with the way things were going, in the eighties another group splintered off from the BNA: Wild Kaos. This new group’s reasoning was much the same as the BNA’s reason for separating from the Commandos: troppo poco casino (not enough trouble).

Most football teams and/or their fans bear a grudge against one or two other teams, but check this out for a roll call of enmity: Brescia, Juventus, Milan, Inter, Napoli, Roma, Genoa, Lazio, Fiorentina, Perugia, Torino, Verona, Reggina, Como and Vicenza can all expect a feisty reception at the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia. Of these, one episode well worth noting happened in the summer of 2013. During a celebration for the club in the centre of town organised by the fans’ groups, a player, Giulio Migliaccio, rode a tank over two cars, crushing them; one in the colours of Brescia, and the other in Roma’s. Pow! Take that! A tank! A bloody tank! Those guys know how to effectively get across their message, as long as it doesn’t require any subtlety.

I got first hand experience of their supporters’ prickishness prickliness in the days before this match when I was trying to get in contact with people for interviews. Using my normal method of signing up for their forums and then writing a wee introductory note explaining who I was and what I was doing, I got almost nothing but abuse in return. I’d written my little message, then settled down to watch a film, and barely fifteen minutes in, my phone pinged to tell me that someone had replied. Excited by their efficiency, imagine my disappointment when said message instructed me where to go and what to do to myself in somewhat colourful language. There followed a string of other messages questioning whether I was genuine or a troll, with most people apparently deciding that I was the latter despite my protestations that I don’t now and indeed have never lived under a bridge. That evening, the discussion topic I’d started was taken down, and the next day my membership was deleted. Thanks! 

There are only two reasons that I can think of that would explain why this happened: 

1. Someone said something really inappropriate and against the rules in the discussion, but as that wouldn’t affect my membership, what I reckon is more likely was that: 
2. Someone reported me as being a ne’er-do-well and I was booted out. As I said, I had replied to someone who’d accused me of the same thing in order to deny it, but they didn’t believe me for the most laughable of reasons: they said my Italian was too good. Almost suspiciously good. 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the court, I’d like to counter this point in two parts: First, I have been living here for more than five years, but thanks, that’s kind of you to say that my Italian is good, however with particular regard to my written Italian which certainly isn’t the best, please don’t piss in my pocket and tell me it’s raining. 

Secondly, what?! Only Italians are allowed to learn the language?! They say that there isn’t  a wall that a Bergamascan can’t build (they’re famed for their building skills), however this particular muppet seemingly found the language barrier too great an obstacle, thinking as he/she did that a foreigner couldn’t learn their language to a passable level. 

........

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight