Football is life: the loves and madness of Roma Tifosi

ABSTRACT

This paper takes the cultural text of Association football (soccer) and some media texts created in response to it, to explore the passions linked to the game. In particular, we examine several poems and ‘recitativo’ (spoken moments in musical performances) to trace some links between the notions of love, suffering and madness that are referred to so often in conversations regarding the cultural texts of Association football. As part of this we draw on aspects of psychoanalysis which provide an entry point into thinking through possible connections between love, play and suffering. At issue are questions of how a game played by other people can be so important in the intimate daily and seasonal lives of so many people, as well as the specific interplay between love, desire, masculinity and loss.

KEYWORDS:

• Pathology
• AS Roma
• love
• madness
• fans
• psychoanalysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The goal comes from Inter vs Roma on 26 October 2005 which Roma won 2–3 in favour of Roma. At the time of writing the goal could be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zh5_PVtKr8&nohtml5=False (accessed 23 October 2018).

2. Such ‘tragedies’ are emblematic of other football cultures as well (de Hollanda and Buarque 2014; Klugman 2008-9).

3. It is worth noting that the recitivo implies to an Italian audience that the wife/mother is the head of the household, and is not a fan by choice.

4. ‘Quanno er mi fijo ebbe la scarlattina io l’ho saputo lunedì mattina nessuno s’è azzardato a dillo prima. Divento “n animale nun lo nego. Mi moje c’ha la febbre? Io me ne frego. Se sa che vojo sta” pe’ conto mio ‘sti giorni nun c’ho moje e nun c’ho fijo … Lei nun sta bene? Er pupo c’ha la bua? A lei je passa. E ar pupo? Cazzi sua!’.

5. Lacan developed the notion of the Thing – das Ding – in relation to courtly love in his Seminar VII. Lacan’s concept of the Thing is based at least partly from an early paper of Freud’s on the ‘Project for a Scientific Psychology’ that was published posthumously Freud (1966). In this paper Freud spoke of das Ding as that Thing whose presence is so unbearable it is (necessarily) tossed out during the birth of the subject, to become the Thing which is at once ‘me’ and ‘not-me’ (Freud would later speak of this as the uncanny). The throwing out of this Thing, means that what becomes the self will never be complete, and thus will always lack. The self will then relentlessly pursue it in order to try and become whole again, but if it gets too close it will find the presence of the Thing once again unbearable. Lacan soon re-formulated das Ding as the objet petit a. We have chosen textual clarity and accessibility over theoretical purity by remaining with the term ‘the Thing’.

6. The video embedded in the following webpage has the radio commentary aligned with the television footage of the game: http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/serie-a/roma/2016/04/21-10780994/roma_il_tifoso_che_ha_fatto_il_giro_del_mondo_in_tv_mai_pianto_per_una_donna_per_totti_s/?cookieAccept (accessed 23 October 2018).

7. See ‘Roma, il tifoso che ha fatto il giro del mondo in TV: “Mai pianto per una donna, per Totti sì’, Corriere dello sport.it, 21 April 2016, http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/serie-a/roma/2016/04/21-10780994/roma_il_tifoso_che_ha_fatto_il_giro_del_mondo_in_tv_mai_pianto_per_una_donna_per_totti_s/?cookieAccept (accessed 23 October 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesco Ricatti

Francesco Ricatti is Cassamarca Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies at Monash University. His areas of research include transcultural  studies, migration history, and football studies. His research on football has focused on the history of AS Roma, and on the important role that football plays in the lives, identities and memories of migrants, both in Italy and in Australia.

Matthew Klugman

Matthew Klugman is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Health & Sport at Victoria University. His research interests include those who love and hate sport, along with the intersecting histories of sports, emotions, race, gender, sexuality, medicine, science, migration, the visual, and bodies.