Does amateur football have no memory?

Berlin, 22 November 2024

…there is always another season. If you lose the cup final in May you can always wait for the third round in January, what’s the harm in that? In fact, it’s quite comforting, if you think about it (Nick Hornby, Fever High)

Today I want to share with you an exchange of reflections, on WhatsApp, between me and my brother. He is also a journalist, but above all a literature teacher and very attentive to the historical dynamics of the social phenomena that fascinate him.

Alberto send me this reflection:

Amateur football as we have experienced it has its own historical path. We, writing about them for years, know who the teams are, their victories and their passage from category to category, we know the characters, their successes, their appearances and goals. We could rebuild many careers of footballers and coaches.

However, I realized that it is only in our heads as journalists that amateur football exists in this way.

For the protagonist actors it is a short period of life in which there is never an overall vision of the present and the past: this is perhaps also the reason why amateurs never have stories built on something sustainable.

After all, without memory there is never context.

The topic is interesting and I try to go in depth.

I agree with the approach, it seems to me that things are actually this way, so I ask myself: is the situation like this for the nature of the narrativemade mainly on paper and with the absence of methods (such as databases, queries, individual and team history), which do not lend themselves well to research as we are mostly used to today?

Or the situation is like this for the nature of the protagonists (footballers, managers, sponsors and presidents), who experience it precisely as a short passage in their lives, very tied to their circles, where you also have little idea of ​​who your opponent is, and which ends up structuring this football within an eternal present where a club has no memory of its history, does it represent only its today and due to obvious structural limitations (especially economic, I would say) it is never certain of tomorrow?

As often happens there is a bit of both.

The narrators on one side. If you travel around the Italy of amateur football you will find, at best, some expert journalist who will take his memories with him to the grave, at most he will leave us some book destined to become unobtainable. To date, I know of no structural initiatives capable of maintaining a more detailed memory.

The best thing I know in this regard is the community that is called All-rounder and was built over 15 years of work by two boys from Veneto and their collaborators spread throughout Italy, and is structured as a sort of Wikipedia of amateur-youth football.

The fact that it’s a wiki – that is, based on spontaneous yet coordinated and structured contributions – is a detail that confirms that the demand exists. Because if every week in a natural and spontaneous way in every part of the country there is someone who, more or less free of charge, takes the trouble to update results and rankings, well… it cannot be said that this thing does not stir deep passions.

We cannot help but be at the same time worried about the loss of historical memory but also comforted by the fact that, although disorganized, there are many of us, and there would be many of us who want to nourish it.

The protagonists on the other. And here I call into question the workers in the clubs but also in the federations.

Are we sure that the current pyramidal organization of football is the best possible to express the full potential of football at all levels: national professional, interregional semi-professional, and then regional and provincial?

In Friuli there is a championship Carnicrecognized by the FIGC, which – for aught I know – it is contested in three categories from April to November and is the demonstration of how a limitation (living in the mountains) has in its time become a great opportunity: to become independent from the federal pyramid, and to structure an independent reality strong in its history and its uniqueness.

Even in this system, limits sometimes emerge, no one is immune to change or even to critical issues: but there is one thing that has great value in there and that is the rolls of honour, the history, the feeling of being inside a protected system , less exposed to closures and bankruptcies. Elements that become collective and identity narration.

I wonder what football could become if all the provincial categories were structured like this, independently.

If you win the first category this year and become provincial champion, well, next year you will start again to confirm yourself as champion. And if you win the Excellence, why be forced to move up to interregional categories that perhaps you cannot afford, when you could once again compete at your best and according to your means (and your structures) to confirm yourself as champion?

Are we really sure that the presidents and sponsors, knowing that, even if they win, their budgets will be programmable for 3 or 5 years or even more, will not be more attracted to supporting the movement?

Don’t hesitate to write me your ideas on this topic, leaving a comment or replying to this email, I really want to know what you think.

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The beauty of football is the idea of ​​aiming to grow though, right?

So he writes to me Damiano Benzoniformer face of the OneFootball YouTube channel and today part of the editorial team that I manage, sports narrator by vocation, who among other things years ago created a documentary on the survival of Petrolulteam from Ploiesti in Romania.

Is growing up the beauty of football?

In my opinion no, but you can think differently. I believe that winning is beautiful, having an identity even more so. And I believe that within the identity, the thought that in 10 years your team could still be there competing is something beautiful and reassuring that invites you to participate.

Lukas Wilke, my friend (and, I admit, a trusted bartender) as well as Ultras of Hertha, says it well in this article accompanied by his photos:

F*ck big money and investors. Just give me a beer, a bratwurst and the game.
(Screw money and investors, all I need is a beer, a sandwich and the match)

Damiano himself, moreover, here in Berlin while we were going to watch the Primavera semi-final between Hertha and Borussia Dortmund in the old Dynamo Berlin stadium at the Jahn Sportpark pointed out to me on the subject the existence of “Scheisse, we’re going up!” (translated: “shit, we’re going up”) a book by Kit Holden on Union Berlin promotions and the risks associated with promotions.

Occasional fans, loss of identity, infrastructural problems (Union had to play the Champions League “away” at the Olympiastadion), financial risks.

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about the secession of the greats through the defunct Super League.

What if instead it were the little ones who left and became independent, in the name of sustainability, but also of their identity and a deeper and more respectful sense of their own history?

I’ve asked myself this before in this column. But the question continues to seem absolutely relevant and sensible to me. I’ll turn it over to you.

• Meanwhile the Saudis… Yesterday’s issue of the diary Fubolitixdedicated to the health of Saudi investments in sports, deliberately focused only on the economic numbers. But of course the overall theme does not end there. Come scrive Nick Harris su Sporting Intelligence a new report from Human Rights Watch accuses Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) of using the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), for projects that violate human rights and harm Saudi citizens. Among the charges: forced expropriations, abuse of migrant workers and complicity in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. HRW denounces the lack of transparency and the use of the PIF to strengthen the personal control of MBS, while FIFA and other international actors continue to collaborate with Saudi Arabia for economic interests.

• The president of volleyball. The 39th World Congress FIVB elected Fabio Azevedo as new president by acclamation. Azevedo will lead the organization for eight years, aiming to double the global fan base with the “Strategic Vision 2024-2032”. Hugh McCutcheon, former coach and Olympic gold medalist, has been appointed General Secretary. Recently, it should be remembered, the FIVB has inflated its World Cup by doubling the events (the next ones: 2025 in the Philippines, 2027 in Poland) and even in volleyball there are those – like the president of the Italian men’s Volleyball League, Massimo Righi, think about creating a Euroleague.

• Sponsor weapons of war. Quest’estate in “Sponsor tanks in 2024” I had reported on the conflicts between Borussia Dortmund fans and the club’s owners following the agreement with Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest arms manufacturer. The story is not over and the fans have renewed their requests to terminate the sponsorship contract: following a recent general meeting, the supporters presented a motion to terminate the agreement. Despite this, the proposal was rejected by the club, highlighting a clear divide with the club’s management. The controversy comes against a backdrop of rising revenue for Dortmund, who reported record revenues in 2023/24 thanks to the Champions League and other commercial ventures, but fans believe involvement with a company linked to the production of weapons damage the image of the club and its social ideals.

Speaking of amateurism and identity football, but also of passions, football, friendship and the best way I know to spend money while travelling: on Saturday morning I take the train to Prague where on Monday evening together with some friends from Manchester I go to see FC United of Manchester play the second leg of the round of 16 Fenix Trophy against the Prague Raptors.

The Fenix ​​Trophy is an international sporting event, created and organized by the Milanese football club Brera FC, active from the 2021/2022 season. It involves European non-professional clubs (each paired with a charity partner), chosen for their exceptional social, historical and cultural specificity.

This year the tournament will be played with a tennis scoreboard up to the final four, in Italy.

The competition has received UEFA approval. Proving that if you are small and don’t disturb their business in Nyon they have no problem approving your competitions.

I will tell you…

That’s all for today too. See you soon!
Giovanni