clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Curva Fiesole releases statement about upcoming season

The team can’t keep the tifosi away, even when it sure seems like it’s trying to.

By The Tito
ACF Fiorentina v FC Torino - Serie A
These stands are going to be full of crazy people in a few short weeks.
Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images

The fans in the Curva Fiesole are well known for being Fiorentina’s most vociferous, hardcore group. While they no longer engage in violence the way they did in the eighties and nineties, they’re still loud, passionate, fearless, and fond of cutting banners written in rhyming couplets. Not surprisingly, they haven’t been thrilled with this offseason. They’ve supported Borja Valero, heaped scorn on Federico Bernardeschi, and pile-driven the Della Valle brothers. And now they’ve released a statement about their intentions for the upcoming season.

Given the animosity that’s built up between the fans and the owners, this could have gotten a lot uglier. While I think that the DVs probably don’t deserve all of the insults that have been thrown at them, they’ve done nothing to earn the fans’ respect this summer. By choosing to stay in the stands, the tifosi have chosen the high road, although we can still expect some, er, less than complimentary songs at the Della Valles’ expense this year. But at least the Artemio Franchi won’t be missing its loudest and most loyal denizens this year, or any year in the future.

On the one hand, we love the jersey and the songs and the past triumphs and (perhaps even more) the near misses and glorious failures. The players wearing those purple shirts are blameless in all this; they just want to focus on their football and win matches. It’s right to support them and cheer like crazy—although most of us won’t make it to any matches this season—and they deserve all the support the tifosi can give them.

On the other hand, though, it’s easy to mistake that support for complacency, especially from the elevated position of the owners’ box. If the fans keep showing up to matches and singing, why does the product on the field matter? The revenues from tickets and merchandise sales and TV rights keep pouring in regardless of Fiorentina’s performance, so clearly that performance doesn’t really mean anything to the fans, even if they grumble about it from time to time.

So how do we do it? How do we support the club we love while letting those who control it know that what they’re doing just isn’t good enough? What form does that protest take? Is it anti-Dellla Valle songs during matches? Is it boycotts? Is it a series of questions that don’t actually have answers? I don’t know, but I’m leaning towards that last option.

More From Viola Nation