Written by Aayush Dayal
The word ‘football’ - and the beautiful game for which it is named - originated from Ancient China and found its way to the shores of Great Britain, which claimed it as a product of its colonies in front of Europe and the world. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, then, that other European translations of this word revolve around the original: fussball, futbol, and le football - except, of course, the Italian translation, which, as ‘calcio’, does stand out.
There’s a strange reason for this, one rooted in history. When the Roaring Twenties came about and the dictator Benito Mussolini rose to power, he needed a way to tap into the volatile tub that was Europe, bubbling and fizzing over with nationalistic and ethnocentric sentiment. That’s when he made the ingenious connection of associating his regime with the success of the Italian National Football Team, which was living through its own Golden Age.
They’d won three consecutive Central European International Cups from 1933-35, two straight World Cups in 1934 & 1938 as well as a Gold Medal at the 1936 Olympics in the Nazi capital – Berlin. When you consider the fact that their roster boasted the likes of Silvio Piola, Angelo Schiavio and the greatest football player of the generation – Giuseppe Meazza – it becomes apparent just how good they were.
To carve out a unique identity for his regime (and his new public relations tool), Mussolini’s Italy hailed Football as calcio, distancing the beautiful game from its etymological links to ‘the enemy’. And so the march of Il Duce’s blackshirts transcended boundaries, moving from the battlefield onto the football pitch, where the national team wore black as their official kit during the 1930s. In the words of the reputed historian Bill Murray, “Mussolini’s Fascist regime was the first to use sports as an integral part of the government… In addition to draining marshes and building roads, the stock in trade of dictatorial regimes, the Fascists built modern soccer stadiums as monuments to their glory.”
At the time of Mussolini’s appointment, club football in Italy was in shambles with regional violence, crowd disorder, and fixing scandals rampant in league matches. This proved particularly problematic for Mussolini, as he realised the potential of a stable league system in the success of his ultimate tool for the promotion of Fascist propaganda – the Italian national team. To this end, as a means of creating a domestic environment conducive of polishing local gems for the national team, he reformed the football’s regional scene in Italy by creating one standardised national league - the Serie A - as we know it today. After this development, the national team were not the only roster fortunate enough to be graced with Il Duce’s advocacy. It is said that SS Lazio held a soft spot in the leader’s heart, that which can still be felt in today’s football matches, with Lazio fans displaying Mussolini banners, racist chants and even forming of a group of extremists, far-right Lazio Ultras called the Irriducibili.
The actions of Mussolini were felt thousands of kilometres away in Nazi Berlin and Francoist Madrid, where the dictatorships of Adolf Hitler and General Franco were taking notice of Mussolini’s use of sport to propagate his agendas. Turning the heads of not one but two egocentric dictators in early 20th century Europe stands as testimony to the adept strategy of Benito Mussolini. His mark was deeply felt during his time and will remain impressed on Europe even with the endless passage of time.
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