Among the vast homogenization of our ultras movement, there are challenges that still keep their charm intact and continue to highlight distinct and different styles, modus vivendi and curving concepts. The one between Roma fans and Milan fans is undoubtedly one of these oppositions. A comparison that places the two protagonists at the antipodes of living in the stadium and leads to various reflections, often also dictated by personal taste. This is because – as an elderly and shrewd editor-in-chief of a well-known press agency told me – “impartiality does not exist. There is objectivity, but even in the slightest form, in every joke, in every launch and in every article, it will always be clear which side the writer is on”. And given that writing is one of the greatest forms of introspection, but also of putting one’s “intimacy” in the pillory, I can only share.
Objectively, to name one, the South of Milan is now reaping the fruits of a great deal of work aimed at its reorganization in terms of supporters. The Rossoneri have managed, over the past few years, to work on their flaws, fixing the shot and raising the level of their presence in the stadium to the top. Surely if we take the metropolis as a yardstick, the Milan fans currently excel. If we analyze only and exclusively the singing aspect in its intensity, continuity and compactness. An incontrovertible fact, which will also have its confirmation today with a great performance, sealed by those 3/4 catchphrases that really involve everyone and that echo in the Olimpico in a remarkable way. The “Eastern European” style is a clear and marked choice, certainly among the first to import it into the Belpaese, using it to profoundly reshape their approach to the stadium.
Of course, all that glitters can never be gold. And here, see above, personal judgment comes into play. If vocally the Rossoneri side of Milan is impeccable, personally I’m not crazy about his, by now, marked media attitude of him. An overexposure that can sometimes be cloying. And not so much because “the ultras is clandestine” (by now these are mottos which, like it or not, belong to an alas distant geological era) but because as a movement we should weigh up the use of some tools, which then, in the long run, they turn out to be real boomerangs. Furthermore, the emulation of an ultras militancy that is too “social” can never be a good thing, especially in smaller squares, where a certain genuine way of aggregation should still reign. Yes, it’s true, the ultras is “eccentric” by nature. We are talking about a group of people who have chosen to be at the center of the show and who, for better or for worse, will always be talked about. But I think there are also ways and limits. If you agree to fully transform an away match, a performance on the curve or even simply your own party into a sort of Big Brother 3.0, perhaps you have gone a little beyond the sacrosanct “expansiveness” of the ultras.
Just as – always personal opinion – we are starting with a derisory chorus towards the Fedayn. It can be part of the more “hard” mockery that has always distinguished these two squares. However, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, thinking of the history of a great fan base like the Rossoneri, which boasts legendary groups such as the Fossa not Brigades – now exhibited as a fetish on the sides of the South San Siro -, and which has often represented a bulwark for ultras militancy. Perhaps – my impression, therefore not impartial – today silence on the matter would have been more appropriate. A bit like in the first leg, when, not seeing the Romanisti arrive due to the accidents that took place in the afternoon with the Neapolitans on the motorway, the Milanistas chanted without any hesitation “Where are the ultras”. But I repeat, there can be. It’s part of the different way of experiencing the curve and the ultras. What for some may be a joke, for others it is an overflow of the “chivalry” that theoretically this world should preserve. At least sometimes. A bit like the Milan fans themselves did on the “De Laurentis” affair, when at the San Paolo they openly took the side of the Neapolitans, at that moment ahead of their president.
Then it is clear: the history between these two fans is not “normal”. We are talking about a rivalry that in its past includes a dead boy and a hatred that for many years has taken a path much higher than that of simple enmity dictated by the bell tower or by reasons of curve. And certainly, for its part, the Romanist South during its history may have sinned by revisable excesses and errors of evaluation. We are not issuing morality licenses, because really few would be victorious. But above all because I believe that a world like the ultras, which defines itself as free and irreverent, cannot think of being in step with today’s concept of morality. At times nothing short of exacerbated and ridiculous.
Returning to the incipit of the article and turning our gaze to the Romanists, what certainly stands out in the eyes – if compared to the neighbors – is their tribality. A sort of “healthy” ignorance, which makes the South perhaps a moody, emotionally unstable curve, but certainly “wild” and dedicated to the Giallorossi cause in an almost ancestral way. The chants are not performed in an almost robotic way, as in the Rossoneri ranks, but the support in its fluctuating being remains at excellent levels. Riding the immortal battle horses and being characterized by the many colors used, both during the hymn and for various sections of the challenge. And on this aspect, probably, the capitolini maintain a more “enjoyable” line than the Lombards, who, except for a few flags and the banners shown at the beginning of the game, seem to be drier.
Antonio De Falchi is remembered several times, to whom both the South and the group positioned in the upper North dedicate several choirs, a banner and a small “choreography” in the area Falcon Brigade.
What emerges, therefore, is a rough comparison. Nice for the neutral viewer. Definitely full of content for lovers of organized cheering. The ideal basis for multiple insights. Which is no longer common in a Serie A where the level goes ever lower and the differences tend to disappear, in place of a flat line that really sometimes makes any desire to set foot in the stadium fade.
On the pitch, the epilogue was crazy: Roma took the lead in the 94th minute through Abraham, but Pioli’s men managed to restore parity three minutes later, through Saelemaekers. On both occasions the respective celebrations are truly noteworthy.
It ends with the last teasing and thunderous applause on their respective fronts, for two teams that have nevertheless honored their commitments and who are still dreaming in a European key, in view of the two semi-finals to be played.
Simone Meloni