I often
thought about this article. Many times it began different. Today
it begins like this:"The prisoners of one belief"(Prigionieri
di una fede - SS Lazio). We all realize what the Lazio supporters
wanted to say: total devotion for the colors of the club you love.
But now I think about us all. The supporters! Of course, I can
never strip my ultra clothes. I will always see the world, not
only the sport, by the eyes of the one who sees a football match
from the worst place of the stadium. By the eyes of the one who
doesn't need any comfort in following his team for thousands of
miles. So, I am an ultras. I don't have anything to apologize
to the other supporters but today I will also be their voice.
This is the tough true, we are prisoners. The football is transforming,
little by little in something else. And we can't do anything about
it. Invisible bars of a jail from the future are holding us in
the place we like to be. Or we should talk in the past tense?
We liked to be?
When football was invented, and many years afterwards, other sports
were in fashion. Tennis, rugby, cricket, box and later on, cyclism,
were on the first pages of the newspapers. The players and especially
the spectators at football were often looked as the bad side of
society.. The workers, the urchins, the fools, people from bad
neighborhoods etc.
As a sport, I have to admit football isn't a big deal. Too many
people are following a ball, too little ending of this commune
effort. It also takes about 2 hours... And then, what's its magic???
How was it possible to become the "king of sports" ???
The answer is simple but also painful. THE FANS. The people. Why
painful? Because from this fact it will "die". Now everybody
(bankers, good fellows, family guys, women, babies, unborn children)
are wanting to go to the "show". I go crazy when I hear
this: "show". Haven't the circus, theater, opera, handball,
basketball, formula 1, Disneyland etc. been enough???
Why do you want to take our last joy? The last place where you
can come and feel free? free to swear, free to spit, free to talk
aloud, to drink with your friends, to live an adventure in an
away trip.
Does everything has to be like you want it??? To sit on a chair,
clap your hands, and maybe also to wear the right kind of perfume.
To be unable to scream because next to you there is a 9 year old
girl. To be unable to swear because a woman on high heals can't
accept the rudeness. Do I really have to sell my house just to
participate at a world cup? A ticket for a match has became so
important that they have to write your name, address and 5th degree
relatives on it. To be forced to seat on a warm chair, to drink
Pepsi and eat hot-dog. Is it possible to confuse the interior
of a stadium with a mall?
WHERE IS THE FOOTBALL???
Are those the supporters? Dentists and doctors in biology with
a salary of over 5 000 euro. What do they understand out of words
like "faith", "honor", "passion".
These characters are just sad results of a system based on economy.
They buy adidas scarves, shirt with official bitches like Figo,Vieri,
Beckham etc.
While these clowns are showed on TV and photographed by the media,
our efforts aren't given a look. What joy do the journalists think
they bring us when they show silly images non stop. Big-belly
guys with cheese hats, fat women painted on the face. Stupid clowns
with masks and wigs which stand up to be seen by their family
at home when the ball reaches the line or when it's a corner.
It makes you sick. You have the sensation to turn off the TV.
The mercantilism has touched every cell of the football phenomenon.
Look for example at the football balls. They have became something
horrible. Its like they are from those bad films with aliens.
They are silver or bronze, with weird designs. Like everything
is played on Playstation not on a real grass for real men.
About FIFA and UEFA what's there more to say? They quarrel every
year for power and taking over the income sources. Their last
work of art: the world cup for clubs. Another competition destined
exclusively to big clubs. Those awful machines which produce medals
and money. What honor, what tradition has a club like Real Madrid?
What connections do the "galactics" have with the old
spirit of burg towns? Where is the local patriotism? Heroes born
and raised in the spirit of a region. They all are ready to sell
their soul for a salary that raises from 4 to 5 million euros.
Professional football! What does this actually mean? The official
transformation of a passion in mercantilism.. In MONEY.
There are organized campaigns to take out the ultra' movement
from the sport. Very high prices, the impossibility of buying
a ticket, especially in away trips. Special laws, a synonym for
anti constitutional laws, a cover up for taking away of the human
rights. This happens with the complicity of the press, who is
very hungry for incidents. Photographing and telling about things
that turn out to be small. Of course, the big dramas are always
remaining untold. A proof about their "professionalism".
But these officials are totally crazy. They don't realize that
by pushing the movement of organized supporters out of sport,
you loose any form of control. The best example is , of course,
the hooligan world. English, Dutch, Germans, more recently Polish
or Russians have nothing to do with the sport itself. They meet
in fair fights and they kill each other. With no police, in isolated
places.. It's clear that they want an American model in sports.
Inside the arena, peace and hot-dog, outside armed gangs of drug-addicts
and mad men. Of course, it would be too much to ask the "kind
gentlemen" to think on the long way, about the social aspect
that results from their hunger for money. Money, as much as possible,
unworked and as fast as possible.
Not to talk about the big abuses of the forces of order. Interdiction
of going in away trips, interdiction of burning torches, interdiction
of 100% legal messages...
We feel like ants squashed by a diabolic system. Doesn't any one
care? We are regarded like criminals??? Suddenly there is no mass-media,
there is no justice, there are no laws???
SOS our football is being stolen