Gers meet Napoli in cyber-space friendly

IL SANGUE AZZURRO DALLA NASCITA - “Blue blood since birth”. This is the beautiful motto which unites “gli azzurri” of Scotland with The Blues of Italy and, along with interlinked Rangers and Napoli crests, sets the tone for the lovely website you’ll find at www.rangersnapoli.com

The tifosi from the Stadio San Paolo and the Bears from the East Enclosure have turned their mutual appreciation society into a place on the web where both can have their say.

Any football fan who doesn’t appreciate the Italian game isn’t, well, a real football fan as far as Yours Bluely is concerned. When Serie A hit our screens again thanks to British Eurosport it was like the return of a long-lost friend. Even the most “unglamorous” fixtures produce mouth-watering examples of how the game should be played. Atalanta’s display at Bologna a few weeks back and the Perugia-Parma end-to-end fest on Sunday last showed that Italian middle-of-the-league fare is capable of bringing a tear to the eye in pretty much the opposite way Kilmarnock-Hibs would have Italian aficionados in tears.

Those of us who like our football al dente and have followed events in the finishing school of world football for as long as we can remember, will know all about the sleeping behemoth which is Societa Sportiva Calcio Napoli. Not that Napoli ever really sleep, mind …

See Naples and die. See Napoli relegated to Serie C, as they came close to doing this season, and Neapolitans probably would start kicking the bucket in their thousands. If we think Glasgow’s a hot-bed of football passion, Naples is fandom’s equivelant of pouring petrol on a furnace. They don’t have the room for two sides in that toon - Naples is too busy fighting the rest of Italy to divide it’s calcio loyalties.

The South of Italy is pretty much despised by anyone north of Rome and the feeling’s mutual. Even my own experience of serie B, where Napoli curently languish, taught me this. The worst insult the Atalanta fans I stood with on Bergamo’s Curva Pisani could think to hurl at their fellow northeners from Verona was “You’re just like Neapolitans”.

Napoli are every bit as much a mini-country as Barcelona - two giant teams united by THE giant of the game, Maradona. The San Paolo currently holds 72,000 but, when Diego Armando arrived from Catalonia in 1984, it was consistently packed to it’s then 83,000 capacity. Politics and economics had always served to prevent Napoli winning Lo Scudetto but in 87 and 90, the Barrel Chested One brought home their first, second and only championships to date. Inbetween times he helped them to that UEFA Cup triumph and I’ll always remember the lavish on and off-field celebrations as Careca, Alemao and Ferrara - still playing! - notched the goals in Germany which helped gli azzurri embellish their first leg 2-1 lead.

Much as with The Gers’ 72 Cup-Winners’ Cup triumph, the relief was almost more palpable than the celebrations. At last a club much maligned by press and rival fans had made it’s name in Europe. Also much like us in 72, Napoli then went about ruining their glory - although Maradona, cocaine, the cammorra and a few prostitutes made for a bit more controversy than a wee shin-dig with Franco’s police at the Camp Nou.

The slide began then and hasn’t really ended, although its to be hoped the stabilising process currently going on at the San Paolo will be the start of much more than mid-table Serie B mediocrity. There is just NOTHING like watching - and hearing - a live transmission of a Napoli home match in Serie A. The stuff which comes from the stands - usually bottles, coins, fruit, fireworks and worse - brings about the same levels of media indignation as the songs which pour from the Ibrox slopes. This only serves to make the Neapolitans even more passionate - sound familiar?!

The Italian and Scottish lads who run RangersNapoli.com probably won’t thank me for saying this but they’re striking a bit of a political blow for the Gers support by their endeavours. We have here another Rangers website which has all the passion in the world and all the sarcasm, revulsion and pity possible for enemies of Rangers but has absolutely no place for sectarianism. It’s a sad state of affairs but there will be people out there who still want to believe all Rangers fans hate catholics. You don’t get much more catholic than the south of Italy and you don’t get Scottish fans who know much more about that part of the world or love it more than this collection of Bears.

Opinion, news, history, match previews and reports on both clubs, on events in Serie A and looking at the Italian national side too - written in both English and the vowel-frenzy which is Italian. All brought to you by Lampedusa, Il Urso di Bearwood, Jacopo Belbo and many more equally colourful nome de plumes. Check it out and maybe even save a place in your heart for a slightly lighter shade of blue.

Who knows, if Curva culture starts making its way into The Palace, we’ll perhaps soon see plumes of red, white and blue smoke launched off the back of the Copland, ticker-tape fan-fares in the Enclosure and one of those cool, ultra-style banners, covering the entire breadth of the Govan, which carries a cartoon depiction of a popular-culture hero bedecked in Rangers favours. You know what I mean - we see Italian fans flying huge flags emblazoned with images of Bart or Homer Simpson, a speech bubble from their mouth no doubt full of poetic insults for their nearest rivals. Lampedua and myself have decided the Neapolitan influence on Bears’ flag-making for our upcoming 50th championship (’m not saying THIS season!) should be a massive representation of Bill The Butcher from Scorcese’s Gangs of New York, the bludgeoned leader of the vanquished Irish gang at his feet and a half century of notches carved in his club … Dio Caro! I’m getting quite into this Italian vibe!

Anyway, here’s a wee example of the stuff you’ll find on RangersNapoli - this is the round-up of last week’s Serie A events … all done with a pro-Rangers bent. Enjoy.

Firstly some news regarding Torino. The once mightly Turin team have sacked
another manager, this time Renzo Ulivieri. Ulivieri only took charge in October. Results haven’t improved and the atmosphere around the club is poisonous, as events showed at the weekend. Youth coach Renato Zaccerlli will take charge.

Transfer rumours? What would life be without them?! Inter have expressed an
interest in Stefano Fiore - and can Lazio afford to say no? Inter have meanwhile issues a ‘hands off’ warning to clubs interested in Adriano, who they part own with Parma. Juve have been sniffing around, and have also been linked with Parma’s Sabri Lamouchi.

Uruguayan striker Daniel Fonseca, a rumoured target for Rangers, has quit Como after failing to make an impact. It could mean the end of his long stay in Italy.

A surprise to Rangers fans may be the news that recent psychological tests at Milan showed that their most balanced player in terms of temprement was Rino Gattuso! Clearly they didn’t take his tackling into consideration.

What about the weekend action? Or lack of it in Turin, where the match with Milan was abandoned after crowd trouble. Milan were 3-0 up with a double from Seedorf and a goal from Serginho but at half time tensions rose, and Torino fans broke through the barrier between themselves and the pitch. When tear gas from the riot police drifted on to the pitch the match was abandoned. It’s likely Milan will be awarded the win.

Elsewhere, Inter won convincingly as did Juve, while Roma slumped again. Batistuta was on target for Inter in controversial circumstances, after Dalmat refused to kick the ball out with a Piancenza player injured, and Batigol stabbing home his mishit shot. Two goals in two minutes from Vieri sealed the win but the fans remain
unconvinced and at times booed their team.

Juve had their game won by half time, an own goal and strikes from De Vaio and Camoranesi helped them beat Como.