The try and play Milan vs. Como in Australia solely provides to the rising sense of disconnect between Serie A followers and golf equipment, warns Susy Campanale, however some ultras tradition is more and more poisonous.
San Siro can be taken over by the opening ceremony for the Milano-Cortina 2026 video games, forcing Milan to play their Serie A house fixture towards Como elsewhere. That is an unavoidable reality. Nevertheless, selecting to due to this fact play it actually midway around the globe is making an absolute mockery of the game, above all setting a harmful precedent
epa11671978 Inter’s supporters in the course of the Italian Serie A soccer match AS Roma vs FC Inter at Olimpico stadium in Rome, Italy, 20 October 2024. EPA-EFE/ANGELO CARCONI
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Now I’m not a kind of who insist you will need to help the crew whose stadium is closest to the place you had been born, I realise membership loyalty might be primarily based on so many various components, particularly when writing for an English-language web site on Italian soccer.
Our ardour is often captured in childhood, and we by no means recover from that first flush of pleasure when falling in love with a crew, even when we’re caught with them for all times whereas they undergo a myriad of horrible selections and woeful campaigns. Being a fan means sticking with them via thick and skinny, much less like marriage, extra a sibling that you just’re caught with for all times. It makes you’re feeling like fellow supporters are household.
Having stated all that, shifting the Serie A sport thus far throughout the globe does really feel like you’re household being given the worst desk on the marriage ceremony reception. It’s one other signal of soccer turning into extra enterprise than sport, the place the precedence just isn’t rewarding the loyalty of present followers, however chasing down new shoppers to enroll and make the spreadsheets look good. Progress, that’s the phrase everyone seems to be chasing these days, as if such a factor might be infinite in any enviornment. It is sufficient to make you’re feeling reasonably taken with no consideration.
Serie A must develop, however is shifting overseas the one method?
MILAN, ITALY – MARCH 15: Christian Pulisic of AC Milan is challenged by Gabriel Strefezza and Lucas Da Cunha of Como in the course of the Serie A match between AC Milan and Como at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on March 15, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photograph by Marco Luzzani/Getty Photographs)
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All of us need Italian soccer to develop, particularly these of us who keep in mind how well-liked and thrilling it was within the Nineties. After all, that’s as a result of on the time it was the richest match in Europe, a task now taken over to a ridiculous diploma by the Premier League. The figures we noticed bandied about on the switch market this summer time had been a stark reminder of the financial hole between the true European Tremendous League and everybody else.
Numerous that success was because of their reaching out throughout completely different continents to plug the untapped market, particularly in Asia and North America. Australia is a reasonably latest territory to be focused for soccer, and with so a lot of Italian origin on the market, it
Milan already performed pre-season friendlies in Perth to roaring success within the stands, however these had been video games no person actually cared about, pure money-making workout routines. Do we actually need to be utilizing essential Serie A matches as fundraisers? What if this does nicely, and so they recommend enjoying a much bigger fixture than Milan vs. Como overseas, forcing the common season ticket holders to overlook out?
TURIN, ITALY – DECEMBER 14: Juventus gamers acknowledge the followers on the finish of the Serie A match between Juventus and Venezia at Allianz Stadium on December 14, 2024 in Turin, Italy. (Photograph by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Photographs)
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On the similar time, this isn’t a one-way situation in any respect. Each week we see extra long-winded and pompous statements from the ultras teams asserting one other boycott, warning the game would die with out them, and so they should have the liberty to do no matter they need within the stands. confirmed simply how poisonous these relationships can get, because the followers can get increasingly demanding, even threatening.
A lot as they do carry incredible color and vibrancy to the stadiums, they’re additionally certainly not the one Serie A supporters, and often attempt to bully households with youngsters who’ve the temerity to cheer their crew reasonably than simply hurl insults on the opposition.
Not too long ago when the Inter ultras staged a silent protest at San Siro, the remainder of the gang joined in a chant to mock them. We’ve seen the toxicity of that model of fandom spreading all through soccer, with racist abuse on the rise each in stadiums and particularly on social media. This can be a sport, when did it turn into regular to ship dying threats over a sport?
So whereas shifting Serie A matches overseas would general be a horrible thought in my opinion, we additionally must encourage extra households to go to the stadium and easily get pleasure from themselves. If enjoying in Perth can provide us an thought what that may appear like in trendy arenas, maybe it could have some positives too. I simply want groups didn’t must go midway internationally to do it.