The Fans of Lazio: C.M.L. '74, Il Tassinaro

Lazio fans, on the Curva Nord

With apologies to fans of the soccer club AS Roma, and with a sense of betrayal (for Roma is our team, too), we can't help bringing our readers just a bit of Lazio--the "other" Rome team--lore.  We found it on the walls and sidewalks of Rome, especially on the walls and sidewalks of Monteverde Nuovo, where we've been living.  The references began appearing after the Lazio victory over Roma in the finals of the Coppa Italia in late May, 2013--a bitter defeat for Roma, a thrilling victory for Lazio.   

Some of the writing was simple:  "Lazio Campione," referring to the team's triumph in the Italian
Cup, written in huge letters across an intersection in a suburb south of Rome. 

Or the large sidewalk letters in Monteverde, in sky blue--Lazio's team colors are sky white and sky blue (biancoceleste)--celebrating the victory and the player who scored the winning goal, the Bosnian winger, Senad Lulic.

More mysterious to us were the letters CML and, adding a date, CML '74.  CML, we learned from Roman friends over beer and ice cream, refers to Commandos Monteverde Lazio, an Ultras (hard-core) Lazio fan group founded in 1971, a few years after the first Lazio fan groups appeared.  The

What's that symbol?  A crown? S.S.L. is Societa' Sportiva Lazio

full name became CML '74 in (duh!) 1974, when the team won the Scudetto, the cup signifying victory in Serie A of the Italian League. 











Then, while working out an itinerary on "The Steps of Rome"--this one in the hills of Monteverde--

Tassinaro Vive! (Except he doesn't)  C.M.L. '74

we found CML '74 linked with "Tassinaro."  Tassinaro, usually referred to as Il Tassinaro and sometimes as Er Tassinaro, refers to Goffredo Lucarelli, the leader of Lazio's fans on the Curva Nord (the north curve of the stadium) and the most famous of the team's fans in the 1970s, the crucial decade in the formation of Lazio fan organizations.








For followers of the Lazio club, Il Tassinario was, and remains, a legend.  In 1999, his contribution to Lazio fandom

Stop  and Reflect....

was commemorated with a plaque, mounted by his personal fan club in the working-class district of Magliana, where Lucarelli had grown up.

Bill






For an earlier (one of many) post on right-wing soccer fans, see this one: http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2011/12/gabbo-death-and-life-of-gabriele-sandri.html

And, for equal time for the Roma team, and it's red and yellow colors, see: 

http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2010/06/painting-town-red-and-yellow-for-roma.html

Il Tassinaro, in his younger days