Chapter 3
The fascists in Italy had a number or uses for football that proved to be advantageous to their political goals. One the referee crisis gave them an opportunity to step in and restore order during the dispute which made the government look like it had a handle on the situation. After this established a precedent of government involvement in soccer the government attempted to regulate the leagues according to fascist ideals such as removing foreign players and coach’s despite the detrimental effect this had on the quality of teams. To counteract this loss of talent the government declared any descendants of Italians living abroad could play for Italian teams.
Another aspect of this chapter that I found interesting was despite the fascist hopes of unifying the country through soccer the structure of the games threatened to lead to the development of regionalism which ran counter to and threatened the fascist ideals.
If football was to contribute to the construction of even an imaginary Fascist national community, there could be no place for destructive local rivalries. However, a glance through the Ministry of the Interior’s record of ‘incidents’ gives a clear indication of the wide spread nature of disorder at football matches, which usually reflected long-established city-based rivalries. It was such divisive developments that inspired Mantio Morgagni, in II Papa/a d’/falia, to call for more discipline in sport in general and particularly football, which he believed caused antagonisms between regions, provinces, cities, quarters and groups, as the competitive animas of the squads extended to the fans themselves. (72).
Through consolidation the fascists were able to fight against regionalism and further improved Italy’s international standing by making more of Italy’s clubs capable of competing at a national level.
Chapter 7
Chapter seven deals more explicitly with the fascist government political use of soccer in the realm of international relations. The country sought to showcase to the world a dominate national team that could tour the world and show the superiority of fascist government and fascist men. The games also served to enhance alliances and to defeat rivals. Unfortunately for the Italians it did not always work out that way. One case in Czechoslovakia where following something was thrown at the Slavia goalkeeper by Italian fans caused the Czechoslovakian team refused to play. This developed into an embarrassing incident and did not help the Italians develop support in the region.
The use of propaganda in soccer to convey to the Italian people and the world the superiority of Italy was expressed most significantly at the 1934 world cup
To complement its exemplary athletes, monumental modem stadia and a self-proclaimed ability to put on a good show, the regime’s publicity campaign knew no bounds as the tournament was commodified to a new level. Match tickets were printed on good quality paper with an elegant design in the hope they would become popular souvenirs that travelling fans would take back home. A competition to design a promotional poster was won by the Futurist Marinetti, with his image of a goal with a black ball and the fasces. One hundred thousand bill posters were placed throughout the country and cigarette packets, consumed in huge quantities by the masses, also carried the image of a ball in the net. Commemorative postage stamps featuring the fasces plus all of the stadia with an aeroplane flying above were also issued, promoting a similar message to that conveyed during the opening of the Giovanni Berta stadium linking the two forms of Fascist modernity (185).
These efforts meant that no matter where visitors looked the whole world cup experience would have the fascist reminders everywhere ensuring that everyone knew who had the power to put together such an impressive spectacle.
Questions
- How would the government deal with athletic defeats? How much did defeats undermine the message they were trying to convey to their people and the world?
- Did the government of Italy turn to sport and soccer as a way of projecting power in place of economic development and military build up? or did these things coincide?