Talking about the trip to Locri, of Locri, of the Locrian ultras and of Locri – Catania is not easy at all, not because something negative happened, rather quite the opposite because it was a whirlwind of emotions that were truly difficult to forget. And I assure you that in my long experience of matches and particular situations I have experienced many.
It took me a while to write this piece just to metabolize everything, but let’s go in order and start from around mid-January, when I had spotted this interesting Locri – Catania and mindful of the stories of our globetrotter Simone, present a few years ago in the race against Bari, I had already prepared myself well and booked the trip with the inevitable thrill attached, since two weeks earlier they had forbidden the trip to the Licates due to the works in the square adjacent to the away sector. Fortunately, in record time they fixed everything and allowed the Catania ultras to be present.
I leave on Saturday evening to arrive at the first light of dawn and with plenty of time to better admire the Calabrian center with its monuments, starting with the Municipal Stadium named in 2018 after Baron Giuseppe Raffaele Macrì, donor of the land where it stands. The day is warm and sunny and when I arrive near the plant, it allows me to admire it at its best.
The historic, ancient and particular stadium that I admired from the pages of the unforgettable Super typhushas profoundly changed over the years, integrating well with the local changes, becoming a little jewel for a city like Locri, populated by not even twelve thousand inhabitants.
Even the perimeter walls have been renovated but the box offices are still fortunately anchored in the past. Even on the opposite side there are still some witnesses of the history of this structure: the old entrance gate bearing the wording “Stadio Comunale” at the top, legacies of the past that should be preserved with the same enthusiasm with which these modernizations are pursued, not always so harmonious or disinterested.
During the tour, an open gate projects me prematurely into the next dimension of passions. I meet Locri’s press officer, an exceptional and well-trained person who tells me about the stadium and its transformations over the last few years, starting with the large covered grandstand whose seats make up the name of the club. In front of it another uncovered grandstand, intended for guests but divided equally in two by a gate, finally towards the north there is the very roomy curve intended for the local ultras which, however, on this occasion, for safety reasons, police headquarters decided to leave empty to allocate the entire uncovered grandstand to the elephant’s supporters.
I go down to the green rectangle to see the stands from another perspective, where I meet a locker room attendant, a former Locrian ultras of the BAD ELEMENTS, a group that made itself known and appreciated a lot in the nineties. So I have the opportunity to visit the changing rooms on whose walls there are photos of various Locri formations but also of the amaranth fans in the old basin bubbling with color and enthusiasm.
Several Locrian ultras also arrive to arrange the banners, so I have the opportunity to meet some members of the newborn single group whose average age is very high and if currently, for various reasons, it becomes difficult for a young ultras to follow his own team, let alone for those with family and children. But in their words all the love for their city and for the group but also for the movement in general shines through. The biggest problem that their words highlight is the generational change, given that study and work take many young people out of the city and very few return and from this also derives the dissolution of the historians BAD ELEMENTS.
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Marco Gasparri