national ultras' demonstration

The battle against the fans' ID card, the Tessera del Tifoso, continues. Today a national demonstration washeld in Rome with ultras from all over Italy attending. The march began at Piazza Esquilino, behind the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and went down via Cavour, along via dei Fori Imperiali past the Colosseum and through the Circus Maximus before culminating in Piazza Bocca della Verità, a really nice route and a bit of a change from the usual demonstration routes the authorities allocate.

CB and I went along, partly out of curiosity but partly out of a commitment to the cause. We went with two guys from Lodigiani, about which group I have diffident feelings of semi-belonging self-doubt in a way which my brother might identify with and other people would find preposterous. It was fun and interesting.

The idea was to avoid localism and rivalries and instead to put on a show of unity. Club colours, banners & scarves were banned, instead all groups were invited to wear a plain white t-shirt bearing the message 'No alla Tessera del Tifoso". On the back they were free to put their city/club/group names, a way of showing to fellow demonstrators where they were from without disrupting the overall show of coherence. Some wore shirts with the official slogan 'Se i ragazzi sono uniti non saranno mai sconfitti', classily translated from the Sham 69 song 'If the kids are united'. Juve had produced expensive looking white hoodies with their club crest and group name embroidered on the back and 'No alla Tessera del Tifoso' on the front. Flash cunts. They even had an embroidered arm logo on. Most people just had the plain tshirts, which the Irriducibili Lazio were selling (always out to make a profit, they are). We didn't buy one.



Chants were many but not terribly varied since the repetoire of songs suitable for all is not that huge - most chants are for or against some team or another, after all. So mostly we sang against the police, the carabinieri, the tessera, Spaccarotella (the policeman who shot Gabriele Sandri) and Roberto Maroni (minister of the interior, promoter of the Tessera, alround slimeball). And in favour of the ultras movement, and justice for Gabriele, and for Stefano Cucchi killed in police custody last month. 'Noi non siamo dei criminali': why should the innocent majority suffer infringement of their civil liberties rather than the convicted?


Will it change anything at all? probably not, but maybe someone will at least notice. The police apparently say we were some 5000, the organizers claim 10,000 (looked to me like 3,000 but what do I know). Some local politicians from both parties gave nervous speeches at the end. If nothing else it was a fun morning out; it would be nice to think that it was more than that.

per non dimenticare

Gabriele Sandri was killed two years ago today on his way to watch his football team. The policeman who killed him continues to deny wrongdoing, and a court case is grinding slowly on through the slow spiral of appeals. His family are still waiting for justice. They may be waiting a long time.

It feels like just a few months that I drove past the remains of the riot outside the Olimpico which followed the league's refusal to cancel the days' fixtures. That anger - wrongly expressed but entirely justifiable - lives on, like the memory of a young man shot while he slept in the back of a car.

Roma 2 - 1 Fulham

when we went 1-0 down I really did think oh no not again, there was a terrible inevitability about it. I just sat there thinking oh my god we're going to lose to fulham at home. I have a friend who is a huge fulham fan so I was pleased for him with at least, ohhh let's say 0.0000000002% of my brain. Then some sendings off, some effort on the part of our players to remember they're actually quite talented, and suddenly we had scored two goals and it was all good. For values of all which mean a tiny bit.

Still at least our support was better and the booing was replaced by a determined singing. progress perhaps. and we can still go through, it's in our own hands (ha!)

On Friday I went out with the Fulham guys, we went to a bar which serves micro-brewery beers coming in a a minimum of 6.5%. They were thirsty. This entirely wiped out my Saturday, I am badly out of practice at drinking with Englishmen. Even CB cooking me poached eggs wasn't enough to revive me. All my weekend plans were entirely fucked by this, I haven't felt so terribly ill for a long time.

I am trying to write a research proposal so that's your lot. We're away at Inter tonight, kick off in 20 minutes or so. I might eat some soup and try to prepare for tomorrow's class.

Roma 2 - 1 Bologna

things you've never seen and don't want to: a crowd booing its own team's equaliser.

That's how bad the situation has got at Roma after yet another league defeat last Wednesday (away at Udinese). The booing against Livorno was pretty comprehensive, today was even worse. Through the week there have been protests of all kinds at the training ground an en route to the game today so its not surprising that things were worse than ever today.

Interrupting the protests against the club and the players came a much more serious issue, for once. We started with a 5 minute silence and banner for Stefano Cucchi, the 31-year-old who died mysteriously while in police custody here in Rome this week. Apparently epileptic, Cucchi was arrested for possession and held in custody for over a week while his family were not permitted to see him; his body exhibits highly suspicious signs of a beating (there is a horrible picture released by his family). The official story is that he fell down the stairs. The minister for the interior, despite 'knowing nothing at all as yet' confirms his absolute confidence that 'the carabinieri have operated correctly'.

It seems trivial and unpleasant to follow this story by talking about the football, I can only apologise. After the 5 minutes silence followed chanting against the police, unsurprisingly, and against Rosella Sensi. I don't think the Curva blames her for beating an epilectic to death but pretty much every else goes to her discredit, apparently. As for the game, with a sense of weary inevitability we went 1-0 down; somehow, against the script, we then equalised... through Vucinic of all people. This may partly explain the virulent cauldron of whistling hostility which greeted the goal. The second was scored by Perrotta, who was booed almost as vigorously throughout the game (with some justification) but at least people didn't actively boo the second goal. We still played like shit.

A thoroughly depressing afternoon. 27,000 sad fucks having a miserable old time, and I include all 22 players on the pitch, the staff, managers, directors, owners and even the away fans given the state of Bologan right now. You know, if it's not fun at some level, che cazzo stiamo a fa'?

Udinese 2 - 1 Roma

we have lost our last 3 league games: a crisis-hit Milan, bottom of the league Livorno and now Udinese. Admittedly the Friulani are a decent attacking side and in Roberto Di Natale (currently the league's top scorer) they have a great striker. Actually it was the more inconsistent yet talented and brilliantly named Floro Flores who was busy scoring last night, the fcuker. Two set pieces, two great finishes (especially the second, a lovely header). De Rossi briefly equalised but fruitlessly while Vucinic continued to infuriate by missing an absolute sitter at the very end of the game. I love(d) the man but fuck me you're useless, Mirko. Taddei was sent off but these days he might as well not be on the pitch anyway, I don't think it made much difference.

In other Serie A news, Lazio are sharing our losing streak and last night were finished off at home by Cagliari; bottom of the league Siena (5 points) lost to relegation rivals Bologna last night and have just sacked their manager Giampaolo; Juve put 5 (FIVE) past Samp, which is a shame since I really want Samp to keep challenging at the top, at least it makes things interesting. Milan went 2-0 up against Napoli and then conceded 2 goals in the last 3 minutes to draw. (haha). We're going to see Inter-Palermo tonight, CB has never been to the San Siro so it should be fun. More fun than watching the giallorossi right now, anyway.

Fulham 1 - 1 Roma; Roma 0 - 1 Livorno

neither of these results have inspired me to write much. or indeed anything at all.

Totti has been out for nearly a month, since injuring himself scoring against Napoli, and he was supposedly aiming to come back for Bologna on Sunday. Late this afternoon news has emerged that he is about to be operated on ... again... on his knee. Mah. He might be back by December but it's optimistic.

Frankly though the absence of Totti is no excuse. Sure, it'll always be harder without him. But does that explain why Perrotta and Taddei look as though they've lost the will to live, why Menez was asked to miss take a penalty, or why Daniele De Rossi is more interested in mentally evaluating which Premiership club he's going to move to in January than in making a single useful pass in the entire 90 minutes. De Rossi, ffs. The papers have politely described it as a 'periodo grigio' - a grey period - but it's more like dark matter than grey. Vucinic looks like a starving poet who's been forced by a capricious patron to put on a football shirt and run around aimlessly for the amusement of the public in the hope of being rewarded with a publishing deal for his tragic epic "The Lost Man of Montenegro", written entirely in terza rima.

losing at home to bottom of the league Livorno, to give them their first win of the season, is a new low. credit to Fulham who deserved their draw though.

rage/despair.

what I have been doing on my non-holidays

Am drowning in mid-term marking right now and have also developed a horrid cold / acheyness which may or may not presage swine flu. I have also been busy with the Roma Supporters' Trust project, about which you can read a brief intro here as well as on the main website (click on they banner to the right).

Meanwhile I have been knitting and worrying about cash flow and reading Neal Stephenson and stressing about my research proposal.