Azzurri Song Strikes Bum Note
SEVEN Nation Army is a great tune. I love that stripped down grungy garage punk throbbing and searing guitar breaks. By the White Stripes it is brilliant but hearing half a million Italians chanting the refrain in the streets of Rome brings back some far less savoury memories.
The song has become the unofficial Azzurri anthem and was roared by the jubilant Italian team in Berlin as they waved around the World Cup after the spot-kick shootout victory over France. They were urged to adopt it by pin-up boy Francesco Totti and it has become their collective pre-match battle hymn, and to be fair it has got to be better than some of the rap rubbish DJ Rio has been spinning for the England Posse.
Totti brought it into the dressing room with him from the Stadio Olimpico where it is the intimidating anthem of the vicious Roma Ultras and goes hand-in-hand with the colourful flares and a frenzy of flag waving. It pumped out at ear-bleeding volume several times in the build-up to the UEFA Cup clash in Rome and started spontaneously several times during the game from the curva when the Italians were on the attack. It is atmospheric, yes. It helps build the atmosphere, yes. But it is also the soundtrack to premeditated violence.
For a lot of Boro fans it will be indelibly linked to the unprovoked attack by angry Roma fans that followed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's crucial away goal in the decrepid stadium. For me it is linked with the barrage of pool balls, padlocks, coins and bottles or urine that poured over the flimsy fence into the Boro pen as the stewards and riot police stepped back and let the ultras charge the visiting Teessiders.
It's a good tune but whenever I hear it I can't help but thinking about Roma and growling a bit at them. And because I have a little vindictive streak, when I heard the Italians had adopted that tune they became identified with the Roma thugs and so I wanted them to lose in the final. That and the stain of the match-fixing scandal.
I was delighted Roma failed to make the Champions League and will be gutted if they now get promoted from the UEFA Cup because of the fall-out over the scandal. And I will be gutted if the demotion of some of their chief rivals gives them a better chance of glory next season. And that Daniel Di Rossi is a dirty get too.
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Anthony Vickers
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Anthony, I wouldn't necessarily want you to post this - but after all the articles you have written about that night in Rome, I wondered if you might just want to hear an alternative view.
My own experience of Rome was almost 100% positive. Admittedly an Italo-phile and an Italian speaker, I received nothing but warmth from taxi-drivers, bar owners and Roma fans in the city. Yes, the police were heavy handed (I texted my folks at the time to say the Gazette would probably have something to say about it!). But I was also indebted to them when I intervened to assist a pocket of 20 Boro fans who were lost outside the ground before kick off. An escort was arranged and took us safely through the crowds of locals without a hint of trouble.
On the intimidation inside the ground, I personally felt it was more posturing than genuine threat. To my shame, I did a bit of "posturing" back when the charge happened after Jimmy's goal!
I'm not saying all the reports you documented were wrong, and obviously the Ultra attacks were extremely serious. Just that I took a very different feeling away from the day, and maybe you are unnecessarily feeling ill will towards the majority of decent Romans/Italians.