Football and Fascism in Italy

Doevle

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On February 1st I'm travelling with my journalism-class to Rome. I'm writing an article on how fascism has evolved in Italy after World War II, and also how this is reflected on the football-stadiums there.

Are there any on here with any particular knowledge on this subject? I'm also looking for someone to interview, but how are the English-skills in Rome? Our teacher wants us to interview at least one person in Rome, anyone here living there who'd might be interested?

I've started the work of finding background-material, but I'm struggling a bit to find relevant articles. If anyone could help me out, that'd be much appreciated.

Cheers:)
 
Doevle said:
On February 1st I'm travelling with my journalism-class to Rome. I'm writing an article on how fascism has evolved in Italy after World War II, and also how this is reflected on the football-stadiums there.

Are there any on here with any particular knowledge on this subject? I'm also looking for someone to interview, but how are the English-skills in Rome? Our teacher wants us to interview at least one person in Rome, anyone here living there who'd might be interested?

I've started the work of finding background-material, but I'm struggling a bit to find relevant articles. If anyone could help me out, that'd be much appreciated.

Cheers:)
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If you want to spend £50 ...
Football and Fascism: The National Game Under Mussolini: Amazon.co.uk: Simon Martin: Books

My only real knowledge of early Italian football history is that football was brought there by cricketers! :wenger:
 
Doevle said:
On February 1st I'm travelling with my journalism-class to Rome. I'm writing an article on how fascism has evolved in Italy after World War II, and also how this is reflected on the football-stadiums there.

Are there any on here with any particular knowledge on this subject? I'm also looking for someone to interview, but how are the English-skills in Rome? Our teacher wants us to interview at least one person in Rome, anyone here living there who'd might be interested?

I've started the work of finding background-material, but I'm struggling a bit to find relevant articles. If anyone could help me out, that'd be much appreciated.

Cheers:)
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IIRC, theres a Roma fan floating around, either here or in the newbies going by the name "Giallorossi".

Give him a pm.
 
First of all, the English skills in Rome (but actually anywhere in Italy) are very bad, I’m not saying there aren’t people who speak English well but if you want to interview somebody, I’d recommend you to get the questions translated into Italian before you go there. So your teacher wants you to find somebody in the streets of Rome willing to answer questions about the connection between fascism and football? Mmm… I don't know if it's an appealing subject and I don't think it would a good idea to go to the Lazio's Irriducibili's headquarter to get an interview either :D

One thing you could do is joining the official Lazio forum (Lazio.net Community), they have an English section, try to open a thread there and see if somebody answers.

I can't say I know the subject well and in my opinion there should be no room for politics in football but I can tell you more or less which ultras groups are communist/centre-left or fascist/centre-right. While in the 70's most ultras were leftist, nowadays it's the other way round with the exceptions of those from Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Marche (traditionally left-wing regions).

Lazio ultras are clearly neo-fascist, it is known all around the world and (unfortunately) they're "twinned" some Inter ultras groups due to similar ideological stances. What happened to the Roma's Curva Sud is curious, they used to be moderately centre-left but in the late '90s neofascist groups managed to take control of the organized support and had the political orientation of the Curva Sud change completely, so now Roma fans can be considered right-wing as well, at least their ultras. Milan ultras were left-wing (especially their biggest, now dissolved, group 'Fossa dei Leoni’) but it seems there are various political tendencies and probably the right-wing is predominant now.

To make it short, this is the political orientation of the ultras of the current serie A teams, according to various sources (magazines, websites and discussions between fans), it should be correct :

ATALANTA = left-wing
BARI = right-wing
BOLOGNA = left-wing
CAGLIARI = right-wing
CATANIA = right-wing
CHIEVO = apolitical (the other team from Verona, Hellas, have neo-fascist fans though)
FIORENTINA = apolitical/left-wing
GENOA = left-wing
INTER = right-wing
JUVENTUS = right-wing
LAZIO = right-wing
LIVORNO = left-wing
MILAN = both
NAPOLI = apolitical
PALERMO = right-wing
PARMA = apolitical or left-wing
ROMA = right-wing (used to be left-wing)
SAMPDORIA = apolitical or left-wing
SIENA = left-wing
UDINESE = right-wing

I marked as apolitical the set of fans who haven't openly showed their political ideas but their cities are in general left-wing. There are many other ultras group of serie B or Lega Pro (former serie C) teams who have strong political connotations, either far left (Ternana, Ancona) or far right (Ascoli, Treviso) I think it’s needless to say that these are the political tendencies of the ultras and shouldn’t be used as a measuring stick of those of the whole country.
 
Quality post Interista.. What about Brescia? I've heard there are some real nutters in their support. Are they right or left?
 
Iron Stove said:
Quality post Interista.. What about Brescia? I've heard there are some real nutters in their support. Are they right or left?
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They should be right-wing but they're another set of fans who don't seem too involved into politics and yes they're proper cnuts. Consider that it's possible to have ultras groups of opposite political ideas within the same 'curva'.
 
cheers interista, how come AS Roma became right-wing?

as in, when did they switch from left to right?
 
Nani Nana said:
cheers interista, how come AS Roma became right-wing?
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Nani Nana said:
cheers interista, how come AS Roma became right-wing?

as in, when did they switch from left to right?
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I'm not sure since I don't know well the facts of the curva Sud but appearently in 1999 the oldest and biggest group there "Commando ultrà curva sud" was dissolved due to internal fights and was replaced by many new groups who are deliberately right-wing, in some cases, authentic Nazis.
 
So, I'm in Rome now and I was at Stadio Olimpico yesterday, standing with the Roma Ultra's watching Roma play Udinese in the cup. Fantastic experience, but also a bit scary. They sure don't like foreigners in Italy!

Here's a short clip from the match:


When we got in to the stadium last night some of their fans threatened to beat me and my mate up, only because we had the nerve to stand with the Ultras as foreigners but as soon as we said we were from Norway they held their arms around us and five seconds later ten thousand people where singing the John Arne Riise song:)

Another thing I liked from last night was that the tickets only cost 10 Euros, that's less than it cost to go watching a movie in Norway!

On Sunday, I'll be standning with Lazio Ultras, the Irriducibili. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also a bit scared if I'm being honest. Last night was an experience to remember, but kind of a similar experience to when you're on a rollercoaster: It's scary there and then but when it's over you get this adrenaline rush and you just want to experience it again and again.

Edit: 5 000th post:cool:
 
Doevle said:
So, I'm in Rome now and I was at Stadio Olimpico yesterday, standing with the Roma Ultra's watching Roma play Udinese in the cup. Fantastic experience, but also a bit scary. They sure don't like foreigners in Italy!

Here's a short clip from the match:


When we got in to the stadium last night some of their fans threatened to beat me and my mate up, only because we had the nerve to stand with the Ultras as foreigners but as soon as we said we were from Norway they held their arms around us and five seconds later ten thousand people where singing the John Arne Riise song:)

On Sunday, I'll be standning with Lazio Ultras, the Irriducibili. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also a bit scared if I'm being honest. Last night was an experience to remember, but kind of a similar experience to when you're on a rollercoaster: It's scary there and then but when it's over you get this adrenaline rush and you just want to experience it again and again.

Edit: 5 000th post:cool:
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just start shouting what a great player Totti is and you´ll be fine!!
 
Doevle, it's great that despite a scary moment at the beginning, you're enjoying this experience and it's also nice to read your insight. I think that the ultras or any type of hardcore fans are usually not kind to 'strangers' or foreigners all over the world, not only in Italy. I have recently read a thread on an Italian football forum about the trip of a guy to London, he wanted to go watch a Millwall game and he wasn't exactly welcomed :D
 
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