When I turned on the TV on Friday evening and saw the Italian and Turkish national teams take the field, accompanied by applause and the cheers of the fans, I felt a sense of freedom and a small return to normality. The first international football competition to have an audience in the stands, albeit a limited number compared to the maximum capacity, about a third, but watching the two teams play and listening to the cheering of the people was a really good feeling.
The last time I was at the stadium for a football match was on 12 May 2019, the match between Roma and Juventus, a very intense match that ended 2-0, in favor of the home team. If you are a sportsman and a fan, the tension you feel before every great match is such that you are not calm from the moment the journey to the stadium begins, in my case, coming from the city of Bari, it was a journey in 6-hour bus, in the company of other Juventus fans.
The atmosphere is always festive because a match is a moment for the fans to see their team on the pitch, a few tens of meters away, to observe them in the warm-up phase and during the match. I was in the stands and I was about 15 meters from the Juventus bench, I saw the players laughing and joking but also their tension increase when the opposing team scored the first goal and then the second. Their worry becomes my concern and so becomes the suffering for the rest of the game. It is difficult to explain what it feels like if you are not passionate about sports and if you do not firmly believe in someone or more people with whom you establish a feeling, even though we are complete strangers.
His victory is my victory, his pain for defeat is my pain. That evening I left the stadium disheartened by the defeat of my team and so the thousands of people who queued left the stadium with folded flags and scarves in their hands, while in the stadium the Roma players and their fans sang and rejoiced. for the deserved victory. I left the stadium, got on the bus and kept staring at the structure from the window. My heart was sad but then everything passes. Sport is passion, love, exultation, tears, anger. But it's just a sport.
The spirit that accompanies every fan is respect for the opponents, whether it is won or lost, violence must remain outside the world of football and possibly outside any existing world. Returning to the stadium is a return to experience all these incredible emotions with the spirit of those who have gone through difficult months but are lucky to be here to cheer their team, to cheer them on because unfortunately many others no longer have the possibility. Sport is a value, not a pretext to vent one's anger.
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