A lot has changed since June 2022 when I was last in Innsbruck. That time I also followed the procession at the end of the Wacker Innsbruck-Horn match, moved by the hope of saving the club and proof, if ever there was any need, of the great faith of the black and green fans. However, after the relegation on the pitch and the inevitable bankruptcy, the restart from Tiroler League (fourth level of the local football pyramid) was the maximum possible goal. So only 5 years after the games against Rapid Vienna or Sturm Graz, the opponents are now called Mils, Kematen or Kirchbichl, all small countries to reach which even I need a map to understand where they are.
In all of this, fans continued to travel in large numbers to the sports fields that hosted them from time to time, creating a special atmosphere everywhere, always in support of their team, even in the absence of gratifying results. Meanwhile, the battle to revive the company’s old values, in which the partners are the heart and soul of the same, has not been overlooked either. And as if all this were not enough, meanwhile the main group of the “Tivoli Nord”, one of the first “Italian-style” ultras groups in the German-speaking countries, the “Verrückte Köpfe”, announced its disbandment at the beginning of 2023, after 32 years of militancy. In short, the reorganization of the Curve is added as a supplementary mission to the whole burden of commitments and paths to follow on the road to rebirth…
When I get out of my car, near the stadium, black clouds herald a storm which, punctually, half an hour before the game, hits the whole city accompanied by lightning and thunder. However, the game still starts only a few minutes late compared to the budget. Unfortunately, the public is considerably reduced compared to the matches of the first round, when the average number of spectators was easily around a thousand units. Furthermore, the club is allowed to use only one grandstand, by virtue of the agreement with the stadium managers in order to save some money (in this context, even less lighting during the match…) and, above all, to avoid the hypothesis of playing in other stadiums. Moreover, there is no alternative structure in the whole city for playing games with organized fans, so the real risk would have been that of exile in other places.
The Tivoli North remains empty and the fans gather in an adjacent corner. There are about 2-300 of them and they settle behind the banner of the same name “Tivoli Nord”. The pieces of the group “Unterland” (with their youth section “Aspirante”), “Wacker Unser” and “Inventar” can also be distinguished. A few flags are raised to the sky while the banner appears at the start of the game “the Vecchio Kuore will keep beating forever” (il “Vecchio Kheart will beat forever“, with the V and the K highlighted to allude to the dissolved historical neroverde group). Some torches are also lit to emphasize this moment and the banner in question is then attacked for the rest of the match on the steps of the North stand.
The following support is continuous and of good quality, there is never a lack of support for the team and its many young players. During the second half, behind the hot sector of local fans, another banner appears to commemorate the 110th birthday of the ex-Austrian champions now forced to this bitter news. They also display the banner “Freiheit für alle Ultras” (Freedom for all the ultras), colored in red and black to highlight the recipients of their solidarity, i.e. the friends of Frankfurt arrested after the episodes in Naples.
Kirchbichl’s guests were followed by about fifty supporters (but nothing to do with organized cheering) who at the end of the game celebrated a draw as if it were a historic victory. For the Wacker Innsbruck at this point, the promotion in regional league it is almost unreachable and most likely its 110th anniversary will have to be celebrated here, in the slums of Austrian football. The only certainty is, whatever happens, the boys of Tivoli Nord will not be missing either in this and in all future occasions in support of their team and the city.
Jürgen De Meester