by Mark Dyal
Meanwhile, in every stadium, we Roma fans were insulted with chants and banners that we never complained about, because it’s part of soccer, which is not a sport with a basket and a Jumbotron telling the audience when and how to applaud. Yet you allowed yourself to call 14,000 fans “fucking idiots” and refused to look after those who paid you in advance, instead playing the game of the New Millennium Moralists (journalists, impartial observers, and various types of Leagues) who have only ever criticized Roma and its supporters. This is why we are angry with you, James, and this is why out of solidarity with the Curva Sud we too will stay outside the stadium for Roma-Atalanta. We invite all the real Giallorossi fans to do the same. It’s better to be fucking idiots than fucked idiots.
— Fucking Idiots ASR
In this statement, the Ultras expressed the most important things that I had come to know of them. They inserted themselves into the history of Rome and AS Roma and claimed stewardship of the latter by virtue of their embodying the virtues of the former: by having had the courage and thirst not only to celebrate the great victories but also to suffer the most painful defeats as Romans; and they identified the forces aligned against them as having been brought together by a particular form of morality attached to multiculturalism and general modern slavishness. What’s more, they understood that, while their season tickets had already contributed to Pallotta’s ever-present balance sheet, the potential walk-up sales for the game had not. If one wants to hurt a greedy billionaire, the way to do so is through his wallet.
As if on cue Pallotta responded to the Curva’s statement and attempted to wrap a bow on the whole affair. He did so in the most slavish and cowardly way available to modern man: he went on Facebook and announced that ‘True fans don’t make racist comments and they don’t make violent situations.’ Throughout Italy a deafening yawn was heard all the way from Piazza San Sepolcro to Magna Graecia, while in the middle schools of America teachers demanded that some children stand with a defiant fist in the air, while others were forced instead to bow their heads in shame.
When the 2015–2016 season began, the Ultras entered Curva Sud to find an eight-foot tall barrier splitting the section into two smaller sections. It had been erected over the summer by Franco Gabrielli, Rome’s Police Prefect, after a revelation he had while watching one of the previous season’s derbies: the curvas are overcrowded and thus dangerous. Although there was no data offered that supported his fears of danger, the barriers remained. During the first home game of the season, the Ultras seemed to be in shock, but soon recovered to announce a strike that would last until the barriers came down.
One of the first statements made by the Ultras explained that they did not want to be away from their Curva, but that they would not enter until it was no longer a captive space, and until they could do so ‘freely, and not like trained puppies.’ It was a telling simile for fans used to identifying with wolves, and one that, once again, pointed to the domesticated, docile, emasculated, scared, and obedient nature of modern men. And it was one that pointed to the importance of understanding the Curva, and all Italian curvas, as derelict spaces: largely outside the domain of popular morality and dominant (State) power. If the curvas only seem to be derelict to the Ultras, then so be it, for these spaces only have use-value and are created on the spot and through a gathering of the specific forces at hand. In this light, the barriers were a line of State power cut straight into the heart of the Curva. In turn, the Ultras took the imposition and eventually flipped its power in their favor — forcing Pallotta’s hand by refusing to enter the stadium.
When pressed on the issue of the barriers, which even seemed to confuse the media, Gabrielli stated that they had been erected so as to ease the stadium’s surveillance apparatus in identifying perpetrators of illegality in the stadium. For his part Pallotta said very little, except that, as he did not own the stadium, it was not up to him what security measures were installed. His tune would change, however, but not until after a full season of empty seats began to affect his bottom line. High profile game after high profile game passed by, with AS Roma playing in a near empty stadium in almost total silence.
The Ultras refused to budge, but continually chafed at the situation. It didn’t take long for them to stop attacking Gabrielli and to start attacking Pallotta: the occasion was the season’s first derby, and both curvas (Curva Sud Roma and Curva Nord Lazio) united to strengthen the strike against the barriers. Roma’s Ultras addressed Pallotta with another press release, saying that they ‘had abandoned the stands due to the absurd impositions’ that they would never accept. Addressing Pallotta, they said, ‘You will never take away our dignity in cheering on our team freely and with the honesty of saying how things really are. Now it’s up to you, the club, and whoever else is complicit in this travesty, to prove to everyone your good faith, and above all that you don’t want to cancel forever the word passion from what has always been the fulcrum of the AS Roma support: the Curva Sud.’ ‘No one can buy us,’ they concluded, ‘because we are not for sale!’
The freedom that the Ultras so often trumpet stems from the idea that they are the conscience of the club. They’ve earned both their freedom and that conscience through the different types of struggle outlined in this study. It is the Ultras who brave enemy attacks in order to support Rome and AS Roma, and it is the Ultras who do so with no restitution beyond the glory, honor, and respect that their actions command. If the rest of Italy and the world are indifferent or hostile to their form of life and fandom, then so be it, but, as an Ultra said in a recent Espresso expose on the power of the Far Right in Curva Sud Roma, this is only a confirmation that glory, honor, and respect have been outlawed in the contemporary West, and therefore only exist in the curvas.387
Beyond the empty stadium, the Ultras continued to act as Ultras, and protested the poor form of the team by dumping over 100 pounds of carrots outside the team’s Trigoria training center with the message, ‘Enjoy your meal, rabbits.’ They took the occasion to call for wider numbers of Roma fans to boycott the team’s games, so as to force Pallotta’s hand on the barriers. ‘Pallotta,’ they said, ‘comes to Rome to pick up the checks generated by the club’s participation in the Champions League [the emblem of Calcio Moderno] and then leaves.’ The players and coaches continue to get paid their salaries even as they perform ‘without dignity, without fighting, without sweating, and without love’ for the team and city.’ The Ultras were done.
The barriers stayed up until April, 2017. The Ultras stayed away for an entire season, except for one game: the final home game of the club’s greatest captain and icon: Francesco Totti. But the walls hadn’t come down on Totti’s behalf, nor the Ultras’; for just as the Ultras understood, it was never to be an issue of respect for the city, its people, its traditions, or its heroes, but instead, of desire for the only thing that unites all of the States of the West: profits. Finally, Pallotta had had enough of the barriers because the empty stadium looked bad on television, and thus, were bad for AS Roma and its financial sponsors. He spoke up, and the barriers came down.
The Ultras of both AS Roma and SS Lazio returned to the stadium for the 2017–2018 season. And while things have been relatively quiet in Curva Sud Roma, with the new norm being the running attack on James Pallotta, Curva Nord Lazio must have decided that they were tired of their Stadio Olimpico counterparts hogging all of the glory. Because their own curva was closed due to ‘racist chants’ during their October 2017 match against Sassuolo, they were allowed to attend the team’s subsequent home game against Cagliari, but only in Curva Sud. After that game it was discovered that the Lazio Ultras had left a few gifts in Curva Sud for their longtime rivals: a plethora of stickers of Anne Frank proudly wearing an AS Roma jersey. The prank referred to Curva Nord Lazio’s contention that Roma is a Jewish, and thus, Leftist team, given the common narrative of its origins as the people’s team during the Fascist years.
As much as one could say about the situation, everythin
g that need be said has already been said by ESPN:
Anne Frank’s diary will be read aloud at all matches in Italy this week, the Italian football federation announced on Tuesday after shocking displays of anti-Semitism by fans of Lazio. Lazio supporters on Sunday littered the Stadio Olimpico in Rome with images of Anne Frank — the young diarist who died in the Holocaust — wearing a jersey of city rival Roma. A faction of Lazio ultras associates their Roma counterparts with being Left-wing and Jewish, and had hoped to incite Roma fans, since the teams share the same stadium.
Stadium cleaners found the anti-Semitic stickers on Monday and Italian police have opened a criminal inquiry into the case. The Anne Frank diary passage reading will be combined with a minute of silence observed before Serie A, B and C matches in Italy this week, plus amateur and youth games over the weekend, to promote Holocaust remembrance, the federation said. The chosen Anne Frank diary passage reads: “I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.” Racism has been widespread for years in many Italian and European stadiums — targeting both players and fans — and measures such as banning fans and forcing teams to play behind closed doors have not solved the problem.
Outrage over the stickers came from a wide variety of officials and rights groups across Europe, from both inside and outside the world of sports. “Anne Frank doesn’t represent a people or an ethnic group. We are all Anne Frank when faced with the unthinkable,” Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said. “What has happened is inconceivable.” Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni called the stickers “unbelievable, unacceptable and not to be minimized.” Antonio Tajani, the head of the European Parliament who is Italian, also denounced those responsible, saying in Brussels that anti-Semitism has no place in Europe, which must remain a place of religious tolerance. “Using the image of Anne Frank as an insult against others is a very grave matter,” Tajani said.
The Italian Football Federation will also likely open an investigation, which could result in a complete stadium ban for Lazio or force the team to play on neutral ground. “There are no justifications. These incidents must be met with disapproval, without any ifs, ands or buts,” Sports Minister Luca Lotti said. “I’m sure that the responsible authorities will shed light on what happened and that those responsible will quickly be identified and punished.” Lazio’s Ultra group expressed surprise at the widespread outrage. “There are other cases that we feel should lead the newscasts and fill newspaper pages,” the group said in a statement on Facebook.
Lazio president Claudio Lotito sought on Tuesday to disassociate the club from its Ultras by visiting Rome’s main synagogue. He said the club would intensify its efforts to combat racism and anti-Semitism and organize an annual trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp with some 200 young Lazio fans to “educate them not to forget.”
Speaking at a synagogue in Rome, Lotito told reporters: “Lazio have always launched initiatives against any form of racism, which is why we disassociate ourselves from all of this. The absolute majority of Lazio fans are anti-racist and against any form of anti-Semitism. I am here to express out total disassociation to any form of xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism. The majority of our fans share our position. Lazio will promote, annually, an initiative which will see 200 children make a trip to Auschwitz to allow these children to see and understand what we are talking about.”
Still, the club’s relations with Rome’s Jewish community remained strained. “We are outraged by what happened in the stadium a few days ago. But we are also outraged by what happens every week in the stadiums,” Ruth Dureghello, the president of Rome’s Jewish community, told The Associated Press. “Stadiums cannot be places that are beyond the law and places where anti-Semitist, racist and homophobic people can find a place to show themselves,” Dureghello said. “We need to sit down around a table and talk to the institutions, the teams and the federation, to enforce actions and establish a common line for the future.”
The northern end of the stadium where Lazio’s ultras usually sit was already closed on Sunday for the match against Cagliari, because of racist chanting during a match against Sassuolo earlier this month. As a result, Lazio decided to open the southern end and let the Ultras sit where Roma’s hardcore fans usually sit for their home matches.
Lazio fans have a long history of racism and anti-Semitism. The latest partial stadium ban for the team stemmed from derogatory chants directed at Sassuolo players Claud Adjapong and Alfred Duncan. Adjapong was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents and has represented Italy under-19s. Duncan is from Ghana. Lazio will also be without fans in the northern end when Udinese visits on Nov. 5 — for racist chanting during the Rome derby in April. Also this season, Lazio beat Belgian team Zulte Waregem in a Europa League match behind closed doors because of punishment from UEFA for racist chants aimed at a Sparta Prague player two seasons ago.
A Lazio banner nearly twenty years ago aimed at Roma supporters read: “Auschwitz Is Your Homeland; The Ovens Are Your Homes.” Another message honored the slain Serbian paramilitary leader, Arkan, who was notorious for alleged war crimes in the 1990s Balkans wars.
But racism and anti-Semitism have also been seen at other European clubs, highlighting the ineffectiveness of campaigns by bodies all the way up to UEFA and FIFA.
Last season, Ghana’s Sulley Muntari was initially banned for protesting against racism in Italy. Muntari said he was treated like a “criminal” after being shown two yellow cards when he walked off the field during a Serie A game in response to racial abuse while with Pescara.
Four years ago, six fans of Italian lower-division club Pro Patria were issued jail sentences for inciting racial hatred during a friendly against AC Milan.388
With that I conclude a project that has been in the making since Daniele De Santis had the 2004 Lazio-Roma game suspended at halftime. It was at that moment that I was truly introduced to Curva Sud Roma and given an inkling that it was a radical counter to the type of deterritorialized fan-as-consumer culture of sport through which I had come to know of AS Roma. To my credit, I can honestly say that, while I found AS Roma as a consumer and good liberal subject of the neoliberal West, I found Rome as a becoming-Ultra, armed with a few very good friends, a few very powerful books, and a companion that knows nothing of stasis or debilitating fear. This is my story of a unique moment in the history of Curva Sud Roma. It is not intended to be THE story of Curva Sud Roma, for even when I was there, this story could have been told a thousand different ways. It just so happened that I lucked into a chance meeting with an Ultra who suggested that, to really appreciate that for which I was looking, I needed to read Nietzsche. I did, and the rest is … up to you.
p.s. ‘Peace is just a name. The truth is that every city-state is, by natural law, engaged in perpetual undeclared war with every other city-state.’ — Plato389
p.s.s. ‘The warlike capacity of each community is the condition of its autonomy.’ — Pierre Clastres390
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