Turning on your own

Being a fan of a “smaller” club is a painful and long term exercise in frustration and aggravation interspersed with, if you’re fortunate, a few glorious memories. You wait and pray for the chance to witness another bit of  magic, to retell the stories in vivid detail and create your own autobiographical tale and retell it obnoxiously to mates and anyone willing to listen, to make the pain worthwhile. Once a small club is in your blood you do crazy things like sign up to write a blog because there’s no one on planet earth writing anything in English about your squad. You defend the club history and the city’s honor against fans of clubs who have had more scudettos stripped from them than you’ve won. And you do it all with a smile.  It requires faith…and a bit of a masochist streak.

Napoli were very harshly treated by Lega Calcio last week. The match against Genoa was played without fans and the empty stadium at San Paolo contributed to the lackluster play and could very well have cost Napoli some precious points this season. The impact of 50,000 screaming Napoletanos at San Paolo has raised the club’s level of play on many occasions. Anyone who watched or listened to the Genoa match could feel the squad was somehow playing shorthanded.

Lega Calcio punished Napoli for the behavior of their tifosi during last week’s match with Livorno. Now it appears likely, the behavior was part of an orchestrated movement by the Camorra to blackmail the club for their own personal gain. The Camorra  are demanding free tickets and percentage cut of merchandise sales. Having been thwarted by Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentis, the Camorra took things into their own hands. In an attempt to exert their influence, the Camorra organized the throwing of flares and bottles and displayed banners all in an attempt to prompt Lega Calcio to punish Napoli. They were also connected with an incident last year with Frosinone which led to another match being played behind closed doors.

Corruption within most of Italy, and specifically the calico hierarchy, is a given. Justice is merited out with an uneven hand and a view to maintaining the “big” clubs position. But knowing that your own fans are willingly and maliciously turning on the club for personal gain is sickening. Life in Napoli is difficult, hectic and dangerous. And that’s just crossing the street to pick up the Gazetto Dello Sport.

The squad is a necessary and vital part of the city. This is no idle pastime. S.S.C. Napoli is as much a part of the Napoletano experience as seeing the Cristo Velato, taking a hydrofoil to Capri or the constant blaring of car horns and shouts of “vaffanculo” from cab drivers. Watching a city and region who support their side like no other south of Rome, despite having far less disposable income, be punished by its own is tragic.

In related news:

Inter (€25,000), Roma (€15,000), Juventus (€7,000), Livorno (€6,000) and Parma fined (€1,000) were all fined for fan behavior. The offenses included throwing fireworks, injuring stewards, bottle tossing (what the hell is this some secondary Italian sport that has gone unreported?), setting flares and generally being unmitigated pains in the asses. Napoli’s fine for essentially the same thing? A one match band. Ah, the hands of justice.
 

Category: FIGC

Tags: FIGC, fines

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