Table Of ContentFootball, Fascism
and Fandom
The UltraS of Italian Football
Alberto Testa and Gary Armstrong
Published by A&C Black Publishers Ltd, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
Copyright © 2010 Alberto Testa and Gary Armstrong
ISBN (print): 978 1 4081 2371 3
ISBN (e-pub): 978 1 4081 3262 3
ISBN (e-pdf): 978 1 4081 6607 9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any
form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval
systems – without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.
Alberto Testa and Gary Armstrong have asserted their rights under the
Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as the authors
of this work.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Note: throughout the book players and offi cials are referred to as ‘he’.
This should, of course, be taken to mean ‘he or she’ where applicable.
Acknowledgements
Cover photograph © Shutterstock
Inside photographs © Getty Images/PA Images/Colorsport
Designed by James Watson
Commissioned by Charlotte Croft
Edited by David Pearson
CONTENTS
Foreword by Professor Nicola Porro v
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
01 Chains of Meaning 13
02 The Set-Up 17
03 The Stadio Olimpico and its Heroes 29
04 Rome and Glory 43
05 ‘Dare, Believe, Be Reckless’ 55
06 An Emerging Social Movement? 69
07 Political Ideology and the UltraS 87
08 UltraS Society 105
09 ‘True’ UltraS and the Modern World 119
10 The ‘Warrior Spirit’ 135
11 Race and the Fatherland 153
12 The Italian Media and the UltraS 171
13 The Enemy 185
14 Rising Sons? 207
Appendix: Other studies of UltraS and ultrá 217
References 223
Index 235
iii
AT: To my Mum with love.
GA: In memory of Eduardo Archetti whose wisdom, generosity and
humanity made him exceptional.
FOREWORD
This is an important book, the merit of which lies in the authors’ abil-
ities to present the signifi cance of the trilogy that is Italian football
fandom, the prevalence of nostalgia for fascism, and the socio-political
history of the Italian capital city of Rome. Unique in its depth of ethno-
graphic detail, the text provides testimonies from some of the main
proponents of a particular manifestation of contemporary Italian neo-
fascism, a political phenomenon that has attracted much commentary
but very little by way of fi rst-hand evidence as to how it is sustained and
operates. The authors present to a reader the iconic artefacts produced
by two neo-fascist football fan groups, and offer explanations for such
groups’ persistence and transformation.
The main analysis specifi cally focuses on the collective sense of
identity – and its concomitant moral coda – created and sustained by
the supporters of Rome’s two largest football clubs, AS Roma and SS
Lazio. These groupings remind us of what American political scientist
Benedict Anderson termed ‘imagined communities’. Such entities –
similar to football fans the world over – are characterised by the
dynamics of who’s in and who isn’t. This dichotomy operates primarily
at the local level and demarcates those who can and cannot join such
gatherings. But a similar notion of distinction has resonance at the
national level and affects Italian football loyalties nation-wide. This has
produced a labyrinth of football fan alliances and confl icts, which in
recent years has taken on a political dimension. As the authors illus-
trate, the sense of a specifi cally football-related neo-fascist notion of
community draws on sophisticated means of communication via
fanzines, websites and radio broadcasts. Central to these processes is
both an ideological and iconic resonance that admires and promotes a
belief system that locates its origins in Ancient Rome and is synonymous
with the First Republic era of Benito Mussolini.
Many ‘ordinary’ Italians consider the pre-1938 fascist adminis-
tration as a model of good governance. The same people, however, are
quick to deny the racial laws enacted by Mussolini or explain away his
alliance with Hitler’s Nazi regime. That such opinions can be articu-
lated without embarrassment may refl ect the political cleansing that has
been conferred on the past by the government of Silvio Berlusconi. The
v
Football, Fascism and Fandom
Premier has relied on other elected members whose politics are of the
far-right – none more so than Gianfranco Fini, former President of
Alleanza Nazionale (AN), a political party that grew out of of the neo-
fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI). Fini’s AN merged in March
2009 with the Forza Italia movement to constitute the centre-right
Partito delle Liberta (PDL, Party of Freedom) to create a government
under the Presidency of Silvio Berlusconi. Fini is now President of the
Chamber of Deputies.
With a philosophy embedded in the 2000-year-old ideals of civili-
sation and democracy, these ideas and the sentiments of the overtly
fascist far-right (be they via the formal Party apparatus or via the extra-
parliamentary movements) presents the Italian state with a real problem.
A rhetoric of hatred underpins much of the neo-fascist proclamations.
Opposing such sentiment is not straightforward. Its appeal is not to an
identifi able demographic; some sympathisers are ‘well-to-do’, others
exist in run-down neighbourhoods and live cheek-by-jowl with immi-
grant peoples. The latter populations suffer discrimination and violence,
and note the failure of the Italian populace to condemn the neo-fascists
in its midst. Over the past decade a sense of hysteria around the
‘foreigner’ has been built up around the incomers’ assumed propensity
to drug-dealing, illegal occupation of premises and violence against
women. In this ecology of fear, a sense of mission has been articulated
by the Italian far-right which has seduced many. The tough talk and
public displays of fascist symbolism have become the armour assumed
by many who speak of the need for some form of urban resistance and
national renewal. Statistically, however, Rome remains one of the safest
cities in Europe.
Fascism still fascinates millions of Italians. In 2005, some 50 years
after the death of the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Italian
state television broadcast a documentary titled Combat Film which
showed footage of Italy taken by Allied forces during the Second World
War. Amid these archives was the day following the execution of
Mussolini.Viewers saw the body of the man known to his co-patriots as
Il Duce (the Leader) lying alongside his similarly executed mistress,
Claretta Petacci. The broadcast attracted an audience percentage
hitherto unprecedented for such a broadcasting genre. This provoked
vi
Foreword
social scientist Robert Ventresca to state: ‘In death, as in life, Musso-
lini’s fi gure exerts an unmistakable infl uence on the Italian imagination
and in politics, galvanizing the public interest as few historical fi gures
can.’ After more than fi ve decades Mussolini’s ghost is still rattling its
chains in 21st century Italy. His legacy remains very evident in one of
Italy’s most popular cultural practices: Il Calcio (football).
The past holds a fascination for both the politically inspired and the
devout football follower. This symbiosis has produced a highly politi-
cised fandom in Italy. The soccer curve (terraces), including those of
Rome, represent in 21st-century Italy the epicentre of a football
supporter subculture inspired by fascism. That a place breathtaking in
its beauty and referred to by many commentators as The Eternal City is
centrally involved in such dynamics should not come as a surprise. As
the bureaucratic capital of the Italian state, Rome was re-born during
the years of Mussolini’s rule and was to provide the most spectacular
backdrop to the celebrations of the fascist regime. Celebrations are
evident today, albeit on a lesser scale and mainly in the city’s Olympic
Stadium which hosts both AS Roma and SS Lazio. In the 1990s, as Italy
experienced the transition from the First to the Second Republic, neo-
fascist sentiments were expressed more frequently in the AS Roma
curve. Hitherto such words and actions had been the preserve of fans of
SS Lazio. For the next decade one could witness these long-standing
Roman rivals newly affi liated by a shared neo-fascist ideology: fascist
sentiment trumped football loyalty. The two clubs have proud histories
and attract large followings. That said Rome had never been the capital
of Italian football; the clubs of Milan and Turin have always over-
shadowed it. This reality has almost metaphorical qualities. The capital
is considered by those in the North as parasitic, bureaucratic and prone
to Mediterranean vices. By contrast, the northerners consider them-
selves astute and business-like. The game in Italy thus dramatises the
ongoing and ever-incomplete unifi cation of Italy.
Some remember that, unlike the northern cities, Rome did not see the
mass mobilisation of its populace resist the fascist regime. Its people,
however, were later involved in heroic acts of resistance to the occu-
pying Nazis. Commentators note how Rome and its surrounding regions
have long expressed a nostalgia for fascism in a variety of forms and its
vii
Football, Fascism and Fandom
electorate has voted for fascist candidates far and above national
averages. Football has never been inoculated from such sentiment. The
fi rst league championship won by AS Roma in 1942 was awarded amid
suspicion that Mussolini had obtained favours in high places which
benefi tted the club. Such details go some way to explaining the synthesis
evident in this text between football fandom and the language and values
of neo-fascism. The youthful revolutions of 1960s and 70s Italy, with
their concomitant radical left idealism, saw their utopian visions opposed
in Rome more than anywhere else in the country. The main opponents
were neo-fascist sympathisers. Rome might be the epicentre of neo-
fascist fandom, but it is not alone. In June 2009 the Italian Supreme
Court judged the leader of Verona UltraS under the Mancini Laws
which punished incitement to racial and ideological violence. The same
man had convictions going back 20 years.
Italian sports journalist Corrado Zunino has written of what he
termed the ‘secret fascination’ of Italian football with fascism. The
facts speak for themselves. In October 2008, Christian Abbiati, the
goalkeeper of AC Milan and the Italian national side, was revealed to
be an associate of the Milan-based neo-fascist gathering, Black Heart.
When asked to explain his association to the group, he replied: ‘I share
the fascist ideals of fatherland, the ideals of the Catholic religion and
the ability to retain order in society.’ The 2006 World Cup winning
Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, once appeared in Rome’s Olympic
Stadium with the number 88 on the back of his jersey. The number is
used as a code of identifi cation among neo-Nazis; H is the 8th letter
of the alphabet, so 88 is taken to stand for HH which in turn means
‘Heil Hitler’, the proclamation of the Waffen SS. Ignoring the outrage
of Italian Jews, Buffon later wore a T-shirt bearing the phrase ‘Boia
Chi Molla’ (‘To Hell those who give up’). During the 2006 victory
parade in Rome the same man posed in front of a statue bearing the
Celtic cross (a symbol with neo-fascist resonance) and the words
‘Fiero Di Essere Italiano’ (‘Proud to be Italian’). The captain of the
Italian national team, Fabio Cannavaro, held aloft an Italian fl ag
bearing a fascist symbol while plying his trade in Madrid. In 2007 he
lent his name to radio adverts for Eva Perón summer camps run by the
Italian radical right. And so it goes on. AS Roma midfi elder Daniele
viii
Foreword
de Rossi is public in his support for the neo-fascist Forza Nova party.
His former teammate, Alberto Aquilani, now in England with
Liverpool FC, has a large collection of busts of Mussolini. Other
players are known to have the song Faccetta Nera programmed as
their mobile ringtone. Players with left-wing sympathies are few or
prefer to remain silent.
Such sentiments need an identifi able target – some are easy to hand
at football matches. Incidents of racism in Italian football stadia are
ever-present. The talented 19-year-old Inter Milan striker Mario Balo-
telli – born to Ghanaian parents but having adopted Italian citizenship
– complained in early 2010 of the racist and fascist insults hurled at him
by rival fans, one of whom proclaimed ‘There are no black Italians’.
Explanations for the proliferation of such attitudes and behaviours
have to be found in the socio-cultural history of Italy; a nation that will
seek security in its glorious memories yet willingly celebrates foreign
models, and is resentful and triumphant in its isolationism. The proc-
esses of globalisation have revealed weaknesses in its armour. Over the
past 20 years, fi ve million ‘new citizens’ have entered the Italian
peninsula mainly from Africa and Eastern Europe. Among many of the
cities, Rome is experiencing the crises and neuroses of modernity but,
having avoided the experiences of urban industrialisation, it has some
catching up to do. Rome is a bureaucratic city par excellence and mani-
fests a demographic that has not changed much in nature in the 50
years since Mussolini took power. The new multi-ethnic presence has
provoked in many a nostalgic search which is ethnocentric and exalting
of a glorious and romanticised past. The might of history sits alongside
– in many senses – the anachronistic cult of tradition. Football fans
would recognise this correlate.
While neo-fascists colonise some Italian football stadia they have
– as this study illustrates so well – an existence beyond the 90-minute
game. In the fi rst decade of the new millennium the historic piazzas of
Rome have witnessed fascist-inspired disorder. In early 2000 an
American tourist was stabbed by two assailants whose homes revealed
to police an arsenal of weaponry and fascist paraphernalia. In the
same location in 2006, AS Roma’s Nucleo Eur gathering established a
notoriety that resulted in them being outlawed. Curiously the group
ix
