I've found a well-written article about the history of two Italian clubs, Juventus and Torino. Having to read such a beautiful piece made my heart melt and made me scour all over the net to look for more awesome football history across the globe. Hope you'll enjoy reading this piece as much as I did.. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...juventus-share-more-than-a-rivalry-and-a-city
Torino were the first club to win the domestic double in Italy. They won five consecutive titles in the 1940s. A plane carrying the whole team returning from a friendly in Lisbon crashed in the side of Superga, in the hills of Torino, and the great players of that squad, all 31 passengers, died in 1949. Fans were crushed before the start of the 1985 European Cup final at Heysel Stadium in Brussels. Thirty-nine dead. But the matches between Torino and Juventus were not respectful. For years, in the 1970s on to the 90s, a small legion of Juventini mocked Superga. “Swaying from side to side, with their hands stretched out,” “they hummed as if in flight … downwards. Nnneeeeeoouuu.” As the announcer read out the final names of the team, they pretended to be planes. And then: “Boom! Superga!” Fans of Torino were only armed with ammunition after Heysel. Lost lives made for jokes. They sang a hymn, and in Italian it rhymed: “Thirty-nine under the ground, long live England.” “The vast majority of the fans of both teams did not indulge in such taunting,” “but many laughed along.” Even the friendly games lost all amiability. In 1945, to commemorate the death of a sporting director for Juventus after one of the many bombings in the city, Torino and Juventus played an exhibition game that ended up with fights on the pitch. Live shots were fired. Yes that's just lovely, it all makes for a truly heartwarming tale.
Hmmmm - when we bring in our own version of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act the Man United and liverpool fans will presumably say that they're just paying tribute to an old Italian tradition................ Perhaps the Green Brigade could source examples of other countries where they have sung about freedom fighters for many years
Whenever I read that particular paragraph it makes my heart quiver but in a nonchalant way. I just love how the fans and writer has able to brought up such a beautiful history between this two Italian sides. Hopefully, history would not repeat itself. It would just tear a good memoirs of those old days..
