Unione Sportiva Livorno Calcio Reviews
Culture directly affects sport. And sports directly affect fans. In football, there is a diversity of teams that have different associations and cultural, political, social, and economic references. Some teams stand out more than others, managing to maintain their status for a long time. Meanwhile, others go more unnoticed. One eye-catching team is the Unione Sportiva Livorno Calcio. This club was formerly known as Associazione Sportiva Livorno Calcio and was founded on February 14, 1915, in Tuscany. For decades, this squad has raised the communist banner.
Unione Sportiva Livorno Calcio: The Communist Team Of Italy
Yes, Livorno Calcio is an openly communist team. Currently, the team barely plays in the fifth division of Italian football (called Eccellenza), and the last time it participated in the first division (Serie A) was in the 2013-2014 season. However, the team maintains its fan base who attends rigorously to each of its matches.
Livorno Calcio, where the Italian Communist Party was formed, is a port and manufacturing center. Here, the working class has been represented by the communists for a long time. Moreover, there has always been a lot of controversy around this team and the city. This team's on-field accomplishments aren't well-known. But, it is known for the fervent fans that it has and that turns each game into a celebration of communism, with flags, banners, and images of Che Guevara, Lenin, and Stalin. In the club's history, there are notorious, infamous moments such as the mourning celebrations during the death of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro, whom Livorno Calcio fans mourned and paid tribute to.
Their rivalry against teams like Lazio -which represents the Italian bourgeois right- is very strong. Indeed, Lazio represents the opposite of the communist left that Livorno Calcio does. Besides, they maintain brotherhood with Celtic, Olympique de Marseille, and AEK Athens teams. These clubs, too, adhere to the philosophy of the left. A group of dockworkers founded this team. Also, it is common to see the symbols of the communist flag of the former Soviet Union at the Armando Picchi stadium.
Its historical leader is the former attacker Cristiano Lucarelli, who came to play with the Italian national team but was expelled from it after he scored a goal in a match and removed his national shirt to show another with the face of Che Guevara. Following his retirement from football in 2012, Lucarelli, who is openly communist, remains synonymous with the Livorno Calcio player and what the team represents socially. But, over the years, and due to the poor football quality of the team, it was descending between divisions. Even it reached the fifth division, where it currently plays against a mixture of amateur and professional groups.
Livorno Calcio does not have much weight in terms of a legacy of triumphs. Yet, its stamp remains unfailing in each match, when its fans take advantage not only to celebrate football but to unleash their controversial political fanaticism.
