No Passion at the Circus Maximus

 

Yesterday, Fiorentina played Livorno in Seria A and I went along for the experience.

You might think that football is football and to a certain extent the game is, but the trappings seem to vary very much from country to country.

For a start getting a ticket is not easy. So perhaps getting a ticket for Manchester United or Arsenal is difficult, but if you want to go to say Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich, Wigan or Leicester, it's usually a matter of turning up, putting the appropriate amount of hard-earned notes into the hand of a man with a turnstile lever and you're in.

Not so in Italy.

To get a ticket, I had to go to a bar nearby the stadium and present my passport, which was then photocopied and entered into the computer. Only then did I get a ticket, which was fully security and bar-coded. (I should say that to use the Internet in a cafe here, you have to produce an ID card or a passport. I'm not too pleased about that! One does have standards doesn't one!)

I turned up about half-an-hour before kick-off and passed a trail of chuck-wagons that were much more Italy than Portman Road. I suspect that even as a coeliac, I could have found something nice and tasty, like a plate of ham, cheese and tomatoes. There weren't many burgers and chips to be seen.

And then there was the security!

Lots of it and I needed my passport again. Although one guy who was supposed to search me gave up, when in my Ipswich Town hat, I pointed to the badge and said Inglesi, because I couldn't understand what he wanted me to do. So much for security.

The ground was extraordinary and hence my calling of it the Circus Maximus, as it was just the shape of a Roman chariot racetrack. I sat along one side, by the goal-line with all of the pitch to my right. The stand I was in, went perhaps seventy of so seats to my left. My view of the other end wasn't good, but what theirs was like I do not care to comtemplate.

At both ends were vast semi-circular bankings, with Fiorentina supporters to my left and Livorno's in the far distance at the right. I would estimate that the top of the banking at my left was about seventy metres from the goal-line.

So much for a good view! But at least the opposing supporters were well apart.

There was also a lot of different details in the preliminaries to the match. There were no mascots, a very formal handshake and it appeared that the toss had already been performed. Well! I never saw it.

As to the match itself, it wasn't as skillfull or as slow, as I had been led to expect. There were no announcements and the stadium despite showing large numbers of adverts didn't appear to have a clock.

Oh! And Fiorentina won one-nil. At least I saw the goal well, as it was scored at my end.

Everton are going to the Circus Maximus next week or the week after. I hope that Fiorentina play as sloppily as they did last night.

Fingers crossed for the Toffees.

Thinking of Goodison, Fratton Park, White Hart Lane and all those other stadia he designed and built, Engineering Archie will be turning in his grave at the awful design of the Circus Maximus.