La Tessera della Rivolta: Italy’s failed fan identification card

Abstract

In this article, I will give a brief sketch of an Italian football fan culture rooted in neighbourhood sociality and local rivalry, which has evolved since the start of the ultràs phenomenon in the 1960s. Since their inception, there has been a political element to many ultrà groups. Some of these groups have adopted radical political identities on both the left and right. It is argued here that the issue that has brought a sense of unity to the ultràs is the shared fight against the police. The police and state authority have emerged as the primary ‘other’ to which ultràs, left and right, form their identities. I argue that antagonism towards the state is a product of a general malaise constituted by Italian citizens’ disillusionment with political institutions, lingering parochialism, a stagnant economy and a material culture with its own conspicuous disparities in power and wealth.

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