“Paolo Nori, writer and above all Crusader fan, says that the only things that make him cry are Dostoevsky and Parma matches. I can certainly confirm the second, not having his culture and not knowing the Russian writer.

The thing that amazes me is that this feeling continues, even in a season like this where at a certain point it seemed we were going to be promoted to Serie A two months early. I’ve been wondering about this since yesterday, not being able to understand until now. I don’t understand the reason, even if I found some answers.

I cry in front of another victory for Parma because I think that supporting your hometown team is a fortune and a privilege, I cry for those unique shirts in the world, white with black cross, which represent 110 years of history, which in my small way I have tried to reconstruct, telling the stories of more normal champions and footballers, who have generated the identity of this team: in recent months I have met and appreciated footballers who wore our colors 50 years ago, the children of those who are not more physically with us, and everyone has something in their eyes when they talk about Parma that they can’t explain.

Then I connect everything back to my grandfather, who gave me this damned passion, thinking about how happy he would have been today, at the café, talking about this team and that we would have hugged each other today celebrating this triumph.

Yesterday before the match, I spent a couple of hours with Giovanni Ferraguti, historic photojournalist of the Gazzetta, leafing through his archive of photos from the 70s onwards, and while he told me the anecdotes of names that many perhaps don’t even know, from Rizzati to Volpi , from Bonci, Colonnelli and Toscani, I thought that shortly thereafter we would write another page in the history of this city and this team.

Neither I, nor Giovanni, nor Paolo Nori, nor any of the Parma fans who waited for this victory and this goal were wrong.

Personally, I can’t wait to be moved by the next victory.”

Pietro Chittolini, Parma fan, 2nd May 2024

*translation of a post first published on “Centenario dello Stadio Ennio Tardini” Facebook page.

Young people have their future in their hands. But also ours.

Today is November 30, 2023.

Rains.

It is cold.

It’s one of those typically autumn days that physically bring us into winter.

You can feel the humidity in your bones.

You’re running errands in the center and you’ll have them all day but the house, the radiator on, maybe a nice plate of anolini for the evening are already fantastic.

Then you pass via Saffi.

You shouldn’t have taken that road, but you find yourself there coming from San Giovanni and passing through Borgo del Correggio.

At a certain point you have a flash of inspiration, an illumination, you perceive your best smile under the collar of your jacket.

Did it occur to you that in these same days, but 110 years ago, a group of young boys from Parma met in those parts to plan the future.

Enthusiastic, excited, full of ideas and projects and at the same time cold and wrapped in their heavy cloaks, they walk quickly through the city fog.

They come from the villages of the Historic Center and Oltretorrente, some from the outskirts of Prati Bocchi and San Leonardo. With two very heavy bicycles, there are those arriving from San Lazzaro.

At the time Parma was always wonderful, but not that great.

There rich images of hopes and dreams, warming themselves by the fire of the stove inside the tavern, and while they try to warm themselves by rubbing their hands, these young boys talk about the future and the football team they want to create.

Some of them have already participated in a football tournament (grouping under the temporary name of the Verdi Foot Ball Club), but they are so enthusiastic that they want to stabilize and make that brief previous experience lasting.

They think big: “…we have to create our city’s football team and we will call it PARMA FOOT BALL CLUB!!!”

Imagine twenty-year-old boys, sitting at the tables of a tavern in Via Saffi, on a cold November evening in 1913, talking, shouting, smiling, waving, dreaming, drawing, asking each other a thousand and a thousand questions, but they are animated by an iron will and a common goal and thanks to this they overcome all obstacles, overcome any impediment.

Try to imagine how much determination and how much healthy enthusiasm I could have had in planning and realizing a dream that changed and improved the lives of thousands and thousands of future Parma residents or Parma fans.

Without them, without their evenings in the cold to meet and talk about Parma, we probably wouldn’t be here today.

But fortunately we are here and on 16 December 2023 we will celebrate the 110th anniversary of the birth of the most beautiful football club in the world.

…

Here, dear young people from the Curva (and not only) who perhaps will read these lines: we hope you have the same imagination, the same will, the same determination that your peers had 110 years ago.

We hope you imagine the Curva Nord and the Ennio Tardini Stadium in the most beautiful, colourful, loudest and most engaging way possible.

We hope you overcome your doubts, shyness, scruples and do everything possible so that our support can be an example for the young people to come.

We hope you have the same enthusiasm, the same excitement, the same will to make your dreams come true, exactly like those who imagined Parma football in the autumn of 1913.

1913 seems very distant and yet the fruits of that amazing sowing are still here today. And they will remain so for who knows how many decades to come.

Dear young Parma people or not Parma people but Parma fans: don’t be afraid of the future, because it is in your hands, in your head and in your heart.

If you listen to them and follow, we will listen to you and follow you.

*translation of a post first published on “Centenario dello Stadio Ennio Tardini” Facebook page.

“Venice Parma, we return defeated, but there is a Crusader fan who smiles when he thinks back to the day.

No, it’s not because of the team’s play or the visit to the city, his smile comes from looking at those present at the away match.

Those present were few, or at least lower than the number one might have expected (there were 518 in total), but it is by observing them closely that a different observation arises: there are a lot of young guys.

Following up on this observation (40% of those present were under 35 years old and a percentage between 10/15% under 20 years old) the desire to delve further arose: how is our fan base from a demographic point of view? Not in general, obviously, but that part that cheers, that shouts, that moves, that goes away.

Here is the data.

This year in the Curva Nord there were 4,233 subscriptions subscribed and more precisely:

2633 full – 490 reduced women – 706 under 24 – 404 under 14

This means that 1110 people under the age of 24 have subscribed to the Curva Nord, representing over 25% of those who have pledged loyalty to the Crusaders no matter what.

25% is a very high figure, from a quantitative point of view; but it is a fundamental value from a qualitative point of view, because those who are under 24 undoubtedly represent the future of our fans.

But that is not all.

In this championship, just over 2000 tickets per match were sold at the box office; had half of these been developed by a group of ticket fans between 14-24 years.

You can immediately understand how the percentage of young people attending the Curva is growing more than proportionally (and affecting potential enthusiasm).

We turn to them, so that they have the desire and courage to involve other peers, to question themselves, to make the Parma match an unmissable event, to identify completely with the only team that represents our splendid city and our magnificent province, to bring all their enthusiasm, making up (at least in part) for the gaps and shortcomings of the Crusade fans.

But we also turn to Parma Calcio and the fan organisations, so that everyone is increasingly encouraged to involve, bring together and make the passion that a boy of that age can have explode.

We “little old men” must act as “little old men”, encouraging and stimulating them, without acting as a stopper..

Young people must be young because the future, for us and for them, has already begun and is already here.

Forward Young Crusaders!”

Boys Parma 1977 released a statement today to underline their dislike for a restart of Football with no fans in the stadium. Here is the document that has been singned by Boys and over 350 fans groups in Italy and all around Europe: from Bayern Munich to Juventus Ultras, from Curva Sur Madrid to Sporting Lisbon’s Torcida Verde.

“STOP FOOTBALL WITHOUT FANS

Europe is under Coronavirus attack. Government decided for a total lockdown, taking care of the most precious thing: public health. first target for everyone. So we think it is reasonable a total stop of European Football.

Football governance expressed since the beginning his only intention: RESTART. We are strongly sure that the only ones to step the field would be economical interests and this is confirmed by the fact that the League should have a closed doors restart, without the beating heart of this “popular sport”: FANS.

It reasonable to assume that, once again, money supremacy step up human life importance.

So, we firmly ask to who manage this decisions to keep the stop for football competitions, until fill the stadiums will be again a safe habit with no risks for human health.

Football- system is in a difficult situation, caused to the bad administration of last decades. Bad administration that we always tried to underline with the only target to protect the most beautiful sport in the world.

Nowadays Football is considered more an “industry” than a sport, where the pay-TV keep the control over Clubs throught TV rights letting them pay excessive salary to the players; fomenting the hunger of football agents who’s only target is to fill their bank accounts as much as possible. A system based only on business and personal interests that, if it will not be resized will bring to a only end: THE FOOTBALL DEATH.

We would like to underline that, if Ultras would have the minimum intention to make money on what it is out passion (as we could read on media during last days), we would push for a restart rather than fight for this option not becoming real.

All this have to change. We are ready to discuss with who needed to bring Football to the origin, to go back living our bigger passion firsthand, to let this be again A POPULAR SPORT.”

Full match video here: https://youtu.be/Y6NKnbzpWY8

We translate this article from Gazzetta.it (thanks Mai Stata Storia Facebook page for the hint) because is a must-read, in our opinion. We ask sorry if with our non professional translation is not as accurate as Mario Salvini (that we thanks so much) piece deserves.

”Watching now videos on YouTube, you think it is a pity not have heard from inside Wembley, live, the Carlo Nesti sentence: ‘For the town and for the sporty soul of Parma it came a day it will be difficult to forget’.

In fact we are here, 25 years later [this Salvini’s article was published in 2018]. A picture of that slice of yellow and blue stands and all comes back in mind. Incredulity, more than trepidation. We had to repeat ourselves, that we were there. And that that was Empire Stadium, Wembley. But, more than the rest, that we were there for Parma.

I do know that maybe it could seem sickening what I’m about to describe, so be it!, it was exactly what it happened. While we were waiting I went upstairs, in the middle of the stand. There was a group, young guys like us, together with adults. Maybe fathers and sons. They brought a cutting board and – this was curious – a big knife to cut a salame. They gave a slice to who was passing there. Another man, older, with two wedding rings on the same finger, said thanks, took a slice and said ‘Mo g’pensot? A sema a Wembley’ . Can you believe it? We are in Wembley. ‘I used to go to away games with my wife with a Vespa, in Tortona, in Lodi, in Crema. E adesa sema chi‘. And now we are here.

Here at the Winner’s Cup final . Until three years ago Parma was never been in Serie A. Those that were in the stand holding yellow and blue balloons, in their life, most probably had seen more serie C matches than serie B ones, in Tardini.

In three seasons we lived the promotions to serie A, thanks to a victory in a derby with Reggiana; then Coppa Italia, won beating Juventus in the final. It all seemed too much. Nobody ostensibly could imagine to have a bigger party that that Coppa Italia final. But we were there. I still don’t exactly know how many of us. I read 16.000, or 13.000. I don’t know. We were all there. And it was our celebration. That one, for sure, would be never back. Maybe we didn’t realize it at the moment. But nothing would ever been like in those three days: the celebration of Parma, of our sense of belonging. For someone, many, the celebration of friendship.

Because if a team like Parma goes to an European final it is not the same as for Juve, AC Milan or Inter. We were just Parmesan people, proud as children. Few things could ever unite us like those three days. When is a big Club to go in a final the group of friends splits. Maybe someone, between the finalist’s supporter, decides to go watching the match. Others stay home, many jinxing. We all left to London.

At least on one thing in our life we had no doubt about: Parma AC. And it was not a matter of supporting. It was not important how strong fans we were, how many away matches we attended, or which part of our lifes was devoted to football and Parma. What it did matter was that we all agreed. Like it happen in every little town home team. But little town home teams doesn’t go to an European cup final. And they never play in Wembley.

So, for three days, I met middle and elementary school classmates in Trafalgar Square, in Covent Garden, in a Baker Street pub. And my old coach in Harrodsburg, and in Regent Street a couple that lived in my same building, the floor above me. Then groups of lads like me, those that in town you see million times and never greet. But when you meet there, queued to enter in Equinox, seems to be like your cousins.

London saw those strange supporters distractedly, those that stand in the same bars together with Antwerp fans. All of us took many pictures with Belgian fans. Police controlled, discreetly: ‘When did you arrive? By plane? It’s the first time Parma is in a final, right? Can we look into your bags, please?’

First friends of us arrived in our King’s Cross bed and breakfast on matchday morning: ‘We passed around here’ . It was a continuum, then. Until the meeting with those who left Parma that same morning. And that would be back during the night. All in 24 hours, maybe less.

I asked to one of those friends what he remembers more than everything. And he answered: ‘the way to the stadium’. Long, straight, white. Around us many known faces. Greetings and silly encouragement with everyone. Those two towers that we saw many times in pictures or on TV that become closer and closer. More and more majestic. The feeling to enter into mythical place. It wouldn’t be the same anywhere, not in Bernabeu, nor in Parc des Princes. Wembley is the Football. Parma, us, that day was italian football.

The wait and the sensation that following three hours could be filled with everything. Anyway, with something we would never forget. But I was never scared to loose, not before, not during the match. Not when Antwerp drew. Actually, even the first goal, very beautiful even watching it many times, by Minotti, seemed so logical. The normal consequence of those two days and a half spent in London. The Severeyns draw was just a predictable hitch, arrived to make all the rest a bit more thrilling. Then Melli with a header. Don’t worry, they will never reach us. Then Cuoghi with the fists in the air. It’s over, even if still six or seven minutes lasts.

I saw many people crying. And a friend of mine climbing and waving his arms. Behind him, on the screen, the text ‘Congratulations Parma AC’. That is my image for 12nd May 1993.

Then, during the night I heard those who sang Curva Nord chants in Piccadilly Circus. We were seated in the ground. In any other night of our life, with all London still to be enjoyed, there would be so many interesting things to do. But not that night. That night we could even stand there, seated.

Marco Ferrari just posted on his Facebook public page this comment on the new Coronavirus emergency rules that will be real since 4th of May and that will allow running but not professional training for teams (even if in protected conditions).

This is a non professional translation of this original post in italian:

”From 4th of May, Bruno Alves & co. could go running in Cittadella [Parma town public park], maybe capturing the people’s interest, with the risk to create gatherings, contacts and potential infections. But they wouldn’t do the same thing, controlled, isolated and following a strict security protocol in Collecchio training center. It seems a paradox, but it is what the new rules impose about the team sports, that forbid the opening of the training centers of the team sport. At least for the two weeks following 4th of may. Then we will see.

I don’t know if and when there will be the conditions to restart with the Campionato in total security. I neither know if it is correct to try to do it – even if is a necessary choice – since we are all teared apart and suspended between the evidency that an entire business that stops will never have the energy to restart again and the sadness of an empty stadiums scenario with the echoes of ambulances in our cities.

I do know that the first step to a possible restart it had been made off the wrong foot and I hope that there will be the lucidity to remedy, avoiding to create paradoxical and potentially risky situations for the athletes’ health.”

For who will ask why during Parma vs Milan the Boys and Curva Nord will stay in silence for first 15 minutes, here is Boys Parma 1977 official statement, that you can read here in the original version.

“15 minutes of silence, 15 minutes of support strike. 15 minutes to think about 9 injunctions, arrived for the Ferrara “non-fact”. Because we are talking about this.

Unfortunately we got used in past years to see violated our rights as italian citizens, used as scapegoat by the system to cover all the obscenity of football world (fixed matches, bets, stadiums year by year more expensive reserved for fans-consumers that have to spend more and more, financial and sport doping, disappearance of historical Clubs, etc.). Often we passed over regime like laws, now it is too much. In Ferrara we organize an alone trip, as alone we would like to go to the stadium. This is not allowed in our Country, and it seems a vital point for governments and police, instead of resolving hundreds problems of our Country, and we had many examples in last days. In Ferrara we were about to go to the stadium by feet, Digos [special police force] stoped us and identified us all, just for the fact of not having been on the knowledge of our trip plan. During the way nothing happened. Zero. Nothing. But 9 guys have been casually chosen to receive a Daspo. To educate all the others to accomplish the boss’s diktat. And after Ultras, as we repeat since 20 years, this will happen to all the ones who will not uniform to the regime control plans. In that same Ferrar where a 18 years old guy has been brutally killed during a police control, but who’s picture can’t be exposed in stadium not to irritate controllers. As happened 2 months ago we are here commenting inhibiting decisions related with intentions or supposed intentions. And also in this case, some guy of the group have been hittenhit, guys that bring Curva on, guys that you see every match on that grades. The same guys that organize travels for the matches, prepare coreographies and coordinates the support in Curva. Those guys that you probably don’t know by name but you surely saw at home and away matches, that you saw work hard to make our home, Curva Nord Matteo Bagnaresi, bigger, that you saw getting emotional during those 90 minutes. For all this and not just this, today [Sunday] for 15 minutes we will not support. We ask you to do the same.We ask you to respect our decision. We ask you to be Curva Nord Matteo Bagnaresi.

NOW AND FOREVER, CURVA NORD MATTEO BAGNARESI!”

This is a translated post from the original Boys Parma 1977 statement after Atalanta fans used Tardini as they home ground in the first Serie A matches since their one is closed for renewal works. 

“ATALANTA FANS IN CURVA NORD 

Model behavior of Atalanta fans in our Curva. During two matches they treated our Curva with maximum respect for our traditions and our Ultras history. We never doubt about that, since we had chances to discover fairness, loyalty and respect of Bergamo people in meetings, in stadium and in the streets. Vecchia Guardia lads hommenaged Bagna [Matteo Bagnaresi, the Parma Ultra died during a travel to a match and to whom is nominated Tardini Curva Nord] with a scarf, left under his plate. 

RESPECT FOR ULTRAS”