Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

La Roma: Soccer and identity in Rome

2010; Volume: 28; Linguagem: Inglês

0741-7527

Francesco Ricatti,

Central European national history

The history of Rome in the twentieth century is closely related to the history of its main soccer team, Associazione Sportiva (AS) Roma, commonly known simply as la Roma} Roma plays a central role in the everyday life of Rome and its inhabitants. While precise and detailed data about fandom in Rome are not available, is estimated that around 48% of the population in Rome supports Roma, 12% supports Societa Sportiva (SS) Lazio, the other Roman team, and the remaining 40% of the population supports other teams or does not care about soccer.2 For those who do not support Roma, can certainly be argued that the team plays a role in their life anyway, through relatives, friends, colleagues, and the city at large. This relationship between Roma and the inhabitants of Rome is extremely complex, precisely because has involved large sectors of the Roman population, and therefore very different communities and individuals, over a span of more than 80 years. While studies on specific groups of supporters of Roma, or specific aspects of Roma fandom, would be very important, the scarcity of scholarly research on this phenomenon invites first of all a provisional and broad mapping of the relationship between Rome (the city) and Roma (the team).3 In order to understand this profound interrelationship, is essential not to limit the analysis to specific groups of extreme supporters, or barrackers, as too often is the case in articles on soccer and society. A prevalent focus on the symbiotic nature of the relationship between the team and the city can promote a deeper understanding of the influence that Roma has played in Rome. At the same time, the city of Rome and its inhabitants have produced an enormous quantity of texts that can be analyzed in order to understand the importance of the team in the everyday life, culture and identity of Romans. Crawford has argued the importance of considering fandom outside the sporting arena and within the everyday life of supporters (105). Stone has applied this suggestion to soccer, by arguing that it is in everyday life that