Genoa CFC: Married to football.

Words: Stuart Fuller

Images: Stuart Fuller

Genoa Cricket and Football Club is Italy’s oldest football club, founded by a group of Englishmen with the purpose to represent England abroad.

The original shirts worn by the club were white, the same colour as the England national team shirt. At first Italians were not permitted to join as it was a British sporting men’s club abroad, but they soon relented and the rest is history.

The club won the first ever Italian Championship, and five of the next six titles. However, it has now been a century since their last title.

Last season, the club were promoted back to Serie A and to make the situation even better, their city rivals, Sampdoria, were relegated.

It was interesting getting their perspective on the Genoa/Sampdoria rivalry which didn’t seem to be as bad as in other cities we had seen on first glance.

“Last season, us getting promoted and Sampdoria being relegated was up there with my wedding day”, an owner of one of the many Genoa Supporters’ Clubs told us as we enjoyed a drink close by the stadium before the game.

Whilst to outsiders, there may not be the same adversity as there is in Rome or Milan between two clubs in the same city, there is a deep-rooted hate for each other here. It doesn’t often spill out into violence, but they won’t be on each other’s Christmas card lists, that’s for sure.

At 6.30pm the team was due to arrive and thousands of fans had lined the roads on the route to the stadium. In England we would call it a war zone; in Italy it was called a proper welcome. Flares, flags, fireworks and fans, crowding Corso Alessandro de Stefanis ten deep.

At one point, a fan put his elbows on my shoulders, resting his arms as he held out two flares, billowing red and blue smoke around my face. You don’t get that at Potters Bar Town versus Lewes.

The team coach slowly advanced, the crowd parting as it passed. Fans paid homage to the players on board, banging on the side of the vehicle, then turned and followed it as it made its way to the stadium entrance.

Inside the stadium it was even better. The Stadio Luigi Ferraris is one of the most iconic in the world, with its four brown brick towers. It looked good when the redevelopment was completed in time for the 1990 FIFA World Cup but the inside of the ground is in dire need of modernisation. Some seats were broken, views restricted and the facilities not existent in the section I was in, but who cared? You were a mere extra in the gala performance.

Alas, Genoa’s inaugural return to Serie A wasn’t a triumphant one. The visitors Fiorentina blew them away with three first half goals from Biraghi after five minutes, Bonaventura six minutes later and Gonzalez just before the break.

10 minutes after half-time it was four thanks to Mandragora, although the home fans did have something to cheer about when Davide Biraschi pulled one back.

Not once did the home support waver, and when a flare was aimed onto the pitch from the tifosi, swift retribution came from the fellow ultras to the assailant.

Italian football has a heart of darkness. Corruption, mismanagement and crisis have all raised their ugly heads at times, but the fan culture is intense and nothing like anything else we will see in England.

Go now, get to the stadium very early and join the party as thousands renew their vows for something approaching true love.