Jacopo explained to us how football is combined with neighborhood activism.
This is the second episode of a cycle of articles-interviews dedicated to popular football experiences in Milan. In the previous episode we talked about the Ardita Giambellino, a team linked to a Collective fighting for the house. If you missed it, you can retrieve it here.
A beautiful Sunday afternoon and early spring. The weather is the perfect one to get on the Vespa after a sumptuous banquet. In the direction of San Siro, but not the stadium – I will only pass by it, under its large shadow – but towards Via Fleming 13, not too far away. There is a sports center affiliated with Triestina Calcio which hosts Partizan Bonola’s home games. The district to which the team refers, Bonola in fact, is not located there, but a little further north, about ten minutes by motorbike, but the chronic lack of suitable public spaces means that the boys and girls of the Let Partizan play there, in via Fleming.
I cross the entrance gate and I find a festive atmosphere welcoming me: children running around everywhere, the medals around their necks from some competition that has just finished, and the mothers who chase after them apprehensive, ready to reward their sporting successes with chips and soda. Some passers-by in the area stop to take a look, perhaps in passing before going to see Inter. I meet Jacopo who takes me towards the sideline tribune where the Partizan aficionados are: all neighborhood boys and girls who, when asked “which team do you support?”, answer “Partizan”, and then are keen to specify “only Partizan”. The answer is convincing, true and sincere. And you notice it for all ninety minutes.
Choirs, smoke bombs, banners, beer and lots of enthusiasm. The screams of the coach and the players, although in these categories they can generally be heard clearly, are completely covered by the incessant drumming of the BRB choirs, the Bravi Ragazzi Bonola. Kids who come from the neighborhood, even if not all of them were born there. Jacopo tells me that some of them moved there when they grew up, when they couldn’t find accommodation at decent prices in central Milan and decided to come and live in Bonola. There they would soon realize that supporting the Partizan team was, after all, another way of interacting and integrating with the neighbourhood. An action that is “political” in its own way, in the best sense of the word.
Jacopo, what idea did Partizan come from? What model, if any, did you follow to create this team?
Partizan was born from the need of many people in the neighborhood to strengthen the community, to recognize each other and aggregate, to create spaces for socializing in the area without having to run away by force. We have chosen football as a glue, as a universal language, capable of connecting people beyond individual differences. By practicing both men’s and women’s football and organizing a fan base, we have therefore made it possible for anyone to participate. Our reference models are clearly those of Italian and foreign popular football clubs, especially those that have managed to achieve a certain stability with long-term planning. Knowing that nothing is ever invented, we always try to take inspiration from other realities to improve ourselves. However, without forgetting the uniqueness of each context, and putting the needs of our territory and our project at the center.
The BRB – the Partizan curve, what can you tell me about them?
With the registration of Partizan in the Uisp championship, in September 2018, the Bravi Ragazzi Bonola group was created. Initially it was made up of boys born and raised in the neighborhood, but then little by little boys from other areas joined. These guys, after years of cheering in the Milan hockey scene, have decided to create their own group and unconditionally support the team in their area. They follow us at home and away, raise flags, smoke bombs. Drumming and chanting during matches really create a warm and enthusiastic atmosphere around the team.
The Gallaratese-Milan West district is often perceived only as a block of flats, a “sleeper neighborhood”. How true are these definitions? What are the critical points and merits of the area?
Gallaratese is a huge district, with about 80,000 inhabitants. It has a lot of greenery and little else. We have a shopping center, spaces for associations, community centers for the elderly, high-rise buildings and the subway to escape from the neighbourhood. There is a complete lack of youth meeting points, we don’t even have a pub where to go for a drink in the evening. On summer weekends, the parks in the area fill up with people from all over the city, but their presence is fleeting and never gives rise to real moments of aggregation. The neighborhood was designed to live on the streets, but the urban transformations that followed its foundation did not continue these ideas, on the contrary: between fences and the closure of commercial activities, the area is increasingly empty. However, the neighborhood has a popular nature, and this has ensured that its inhabitants, especially the younger ones, have tools to create aggregation. Partizan was born in the wake of this story, but unlike the projects of our predecessors that remained only sketchy, we have no intention of stopping trying, of trying to become an ever more engaging point of reference for the neighbourhood.
What is your relationship with the city of Milan? What does it mean to live and play popular football, both for men and women, in Milan, given that this city is becoming increasingly exclusive, with all the negative meanings this term has?
Milan is an increasingly exclusive city, governed by the logic of profit and with very few spaces for spontaneous aggregation. From this point of view, our project receives little media attention and little public support, while for those who come into contact with it, it becomes an opportunity to experience a slice of the city that is different from the prevailing narrative. Let us always remember that Milan is a city inhabited mainly by people who work and live from their work, who are unable to access (or do not want to) access the lights of the city-showcase and who are completely removed from the mainstream narrative. For this reason, Partizan has become a tool for many people to experience a different city, on the scale of the inhabitant.
How much does popular football have an impact on social life in the area? Can we define your commitment as political in the strict sense?
One of our prides is that we have finally created something to do in the area: play, cheer, participate in association activities. If before we had nothing to do, now there is the possibility of staying in the neighborhood, of being with friends, of feeling part of a community. This is our greatest political action, putting people at the center of our project, not as customers but as protagonists of their lives. For this reason, admission to our matches is always free and on away games we guarantee anyone the opportunity to participate beyond their individual economic capacity. The ability to imagine a different future and to open up possibilities for action is the other cornerstone of our action: we are not satisfied with the existing but we aim to improve our future. We are a completely self-financed company, without an owner or figures capable of individually influencing collective choices. We don’t keep young people by relying on ownership of the card, we don’t approach football as a business or as a meat grinder to throw the kids into: football is passion and we build our reality on this basis. From this point of view we represent a radical alternative to amateur football in Lombardy, and we like to think we can lead the way for a future in which athletes and fans are the fulcrum of the football movement.
What projects do you pursue outside the green field?
Football is a great means of aggregation and the engine of our passion, but Partizan’s activities are developed in the neighborhood and embrace many aspects of social life. Since the Covid epidemic we have started – and have never stopped – taking care of the most fragile households by distributing food parcels to them, in collaboration with neighborhood associations, foundations and public bodies. In addition, we have created some murals that tell the story of the neighborhood and the people who animate it, because we want a more beautiful neighborhood as well as a lively neighborhood. Instead, every Christmas there is the tree ceremony: we make a wooden tree, which is dressed up by the population of the neighborhood and which always attracts a large number of people. Throughout the year we organize aggregative and social initiatives such as parties, lunches, dinners, aperitifs. All useful opportunities to strengthen interpersonal relationships and the social fabric.
What horizon do you see as possible for Partizan? In imagining the future, do you remain cautious and pragmatic, as the Milanese tradition would like, or do you pursue big dreams and ambitions?
I would say that we are halfway between the two approaches: we have no intention of distorting our status, we want to consolidate ourselves as a real and credible alternative to the Milanese football system. To do this, it is important not to distort our nature: we must grow but always keeping the bar of our values firm. So let’s be a bit pragmatic, but at the same time we always keep dreaming of the best for Partizan.