Football, our beloved national sport, the one that should make us dream, cry or rejoice, once again finds itself mired in a mud far from the values it should convey. The police operation which undermined the top management of Inter and Milan is just yet another example of how sport is now held hostage by a parallel power, that of the ultras fans, which has very little to do with the football played.
We are not talking about misdirected passions, but about real criminal organizations that use the pretext of football to manage illicit affairs, extortion, and, as in this case, even maintain links with the mafia. And so, instead of finding ourselves celebrating the exploits of a Lautaro or a Leão, we find ourselves dealing with the long shadow of violence and organized crime.
It has been known for years that the curves were fertile ground for crime, but what is most striking is the way in which these figures manage to insinuate themselves into the social fabric, earning respect and power despite their dark ties. Football, in all of this, becomes a simple facade, a pretext to justify behaviors and acts that have nothing to do with sport. but the question that arises spontaneously is always the same: how much effort do clubs put into not making compromises with this type of poisoned fanbase? How many complaints were there? We are not at year zero in this field. Juventus, for example, has taken significant action against organized crime infiltration among its fans on several occasions in recent years. One of the most relevant episodes dates back to 2017, when the club denounced the illicit activities in the shadow of the ‘Ndrangheta clans of some ultras groups in relation to the management of tickets. This story emerged as part of the “Alto Piemonte” investigation, conducted by the Turin District Anti-Mafia Directorate. But evidently not enough has been done.
The great challenge now is how to clean up these curves, how to restore to the fans that dignity that should belong only to sporting passion. As long as the curves are held hostage by characters like those bouncing across the front pages of newspapers today, football will continue to live in the shadow of a threat that distorts its values and the very essence of its noble spirit.
In the Ansa photo, a still image taken from a video relating to the operation conducted by the agents of the Central Operational Service of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police, the Flying Squad and the SISCO of Milan Milan, which allowed dozens of precautionary measures to be carried out and search decrees against people investigated in various capacities for criminal association, with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method, extortion, injuries and other serious crimes, 30 September 2024.
