Whenever the news reports an episode of violence caused by the ultras, we miss the reference to the Thatcher era. On the verge of being overwhelmed by violence, English football, with the help of civil society and politics, already managed in the late 1980s to address and resolve the problem with effective and legal means. In a few seasons the holligans were practically eradicated from stadiums and today attending a Premier League match is equivalent to enjoying a show without risks and dangers.
It must be said that even in Italy the situation has improved for over a decade, after the establishment of the Maroni decree which provides for nominal tickets and the daspo for the violent, but that underground system of blackmail and pressure on companies by the notorious benders. Either you do as we want or we stop cheering (as happens at the Juventus Stadium) and, at worst, we start a mess. The curves continue to be free territory, not so much because of the fortunately less frequent racist and discriminatory slogans, but because there are no rules of any kind, drug dealing takes place undisturbed, contacts with organized crime also and despite the attempt by the forces of the ‘order to file the worst elements and keep them away the bubo remains.
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DELEGITIMATED MODELS
What happened yesterday on the A1, the scene of clashes between about 300 ultras from Roma and Napoli, heading north for the matches against Milan and Sampdoria, is a serious matter because it seems to be brooding over the awakening of those more extreme fringes who don’t stop for so long easily. The feeling is that it is not enough to give the forces of order more power, when one then has to deal with models of representation widely legitimized in contemporary society. The rap bully who in his “verses” talks about bamba, women reduced to objects, I’ll break you here, I’ll break you there, much loved by a young and rather ignorant audience who then find him half cleaned up in Sanremo.
The mythologizing of the fallen ultras, needless to celebrate its ethical and moral value, with “open-air” banners praising criminals, drug dealers and addicts. The aesthetics of the antagonist at all costs, no longer driven by ideology but by the apotheosis of disorder and chaos.
OBSOLETE
In football we can no longer afford the divided self, or commemorate Sinisa and Vialli or smash everything at the autogrill. Single system, permanent ban on entry to facilities, from Serie A to neighborhood tournaments. Will there no longer be curveballs and ultras in stadiums? They have finished their cycle, we can easily do without them.
