ABSTRACT
Since the inception of the Italian nation, politics in all its guises has proved integral to all realms of society. As one of the most significant of Italian cultural practices, football (il calcio) has been no exception to political contestation and has constantly mirrored political circumstances. This chapter illustrates this most notably by detailing how football might be used as a tool to spread neo-fascist as well as racist and ultra-nationalist thought in Italy and Europe. Thus, it is a form of mobilization. Because of these correlations, the game has long been regarded as a legitimate arena for struggles by actors across the political spectrum. As early as the 1930s, Mussolini’s Partito Nazionale Fascista (Fascist National Party) recognized its value (Martin 2004; Foot 2006). Since then, the Italian political spectrum, ranging from liberals to a multitude of right and left organizations and even those promoting pro-Catholic political sentiment, have valued the game, and the arena in which it is enacted, as both a tool and a locale for their proselytizing (Porro 1992; Ginsborg 2001).
