Mafia threats against women’s five-a-side football...what next in Italian football?

Women’s five-a-side football, deep in the heart of Calabria, has become embroiled with the mafia. Paddy Agnew explains why.

Next Sunday, perhaps one of the most important football games played in Italy will be contested not at the San Siro, the Juventus stadium or the Olympic Stadium in Rome but rather at the unlikely venue of the Palasport in Locri, Calabria, southern Italy.

The game in question is not a Serie A fixture, but rather a women’s five-a-side tie between home team Sporting Locri and Roman side Lazio.

The game is due to be covered live on the main TV channel of public broadcaster RAI whilst among those expected to attend are Italian Football President Carlo Tavecchio, Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago and other public figures besides.

This week, centre-left Democratic Party MP Stefano Pedica even called on the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to send a representative to the match.

So what is all the fuss about? Obviously, largely amateur, five-a-side football does not usually command such media attention, flying far below the radar of the super star, professional 11-a-side game.

The point is that just before Christmas, the President of Sporting Locri, Ferdinando Armeni, announced that, because of threats made against him and his family, he was going to close the club, in the process withdrawing it from the five-a-side Serie A.

If this had happened anywhere else, it would probably have been seen as either a stupid practical joke or a misplaced act of media protagonism.

“This”, however, happened in Calabria, one of Italy’s poorest regions and one notoriously controlled by the “'ndrangheta”, today the most powerful organised crime syndicate in Italy. In Calabria, you do not take threats lightly.

For reasons that so far remain obscure, someone decided that “This Sporting Locri Must Close Down”.

Just in case President Armeni had not got the message, he received a second one on the day before Christmas Eve. Not only did the message left in his car say that “Perhaps We Were Not Clear Enough, Close Down Sporting Locri” but it was also accompanied by a slashed tyre.

For the time being, the good news is that even if Mr. Armeni is stepping down from his role at the club, Sporting Locri will play on, honouring its fixture list.

Local businessmen are being sounded out as to their future participation whilst the Football Federation, with over half a million amateur clubs in its ranks, is watching closely.

Furthermore, on Wednesday of this week, the Bishop of Locri, Monsignor Francesco Oliva, Mayor Giovanni Calabrese and players from the Sporting club all gathered around impromptu sports pitches in the main square in Locri to celebrate an “Epiphany Of Legality”, expressing their solidarity with the little club.

A week earlier, the AC Milan captain, Riccardo Montolivo, had done his bit for the cause by accepting a “Sporting Locri” shirt from two of the team players, posing with them at the Milanello training centre outside Milan.

So, what is all this fuss about? It might at first seem ridiculous to suggest that a powerful crime syndicate could be interested in such a small club. After all, there is no money to be made here.

Yet, if ongoing investigations do reveal that the threats aimed at the club are indeed “mafioso”, it will come as no surprise.

Mafia investigators have long highlighted how organised crime is especially keen to inflitrate or take over local sporting realities, often amateur or lower division football clubs.

The idea is not to make money but rather to win consensus with your local community, counting on the strong links between that community and its own team. Organised crime wins consensus by running the team whilst, in the meantime,

it gains access to a whole new “catchment area” of young, perhaps unemployed people. Hence, the concern generated by these reported threats against an apparently, totally irrelevant women’s five-a-side team. The struggle against organised crime goes on…

Meanwhile, back at top level football, this week has seen a fascinating start to the New Year with the top four, Inter, Fiorentina, Napoli and Juventus all winning, in the process beginning to stretch away from their rivals.

Arguably, the most impressive aspect of Inter’s 1-0 defeat of Empoli was the final scoreline itself, in a game where Empoli had more corner kicks, more shots on goal and much midfield dominance.

Roberto Mancini’s Inter continues to be awesomely “concrete” in its football, registering its ninth 1-0 win of the season. The scary thought is that this Inter can only get better.

Fiorentina are still right in there in second position as Serie A’s belle of the ball claimed a 3-1 win over Palermo whilst joint second Napoli saw off relegation battlers Torino also by 2-1.

Fourth-place Juventus, just three points behind Inter and two behind Fiorentina and Napoli, continued their comeback with an 8th successive league win, easily disposing of Verona with a 3-0 win.

As we have said before, all is still to play for, starting with this forthcoming weekend when Fiorentina v Lazio, Roma v AC Milan, Inter v Sassuolo and Sampdoria v Juventus all look very interesting.