Other tournaments

Mondiali

Mondiali is by far the biggest and most diverse tournament in Republica’s calendar - it has over 7000 participants coming from all over the world not just to play football but also cricket, basketball, volleyball and rugby. It can be quite overwhelming at times, particularly if you are at the catering area past dark when it turns from canteen to chanting tent!

The tournament takes place in July in Reggio Emilia, a province of Italy that is not only famous as a foodie heaven (think parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar, bolognese sauce) but also as a bastion of antifacism. One of my favourite memories of my first time at the tournament was the Saturday evening march through the then host town of Montecchio -- the streets were lined with (often elderly) residents cheering, waving us on and setting off flares. It transpires that most of the families had been involved in the resistance to fascism and the area is still known as one of the reddest in Italy; they were proud to be hosting the tournament.

Mondiali started in 1997 by the Progetto Ultra- USIP. The Ultra project was an initiative to involve football fans (particularly the Ultra groups) in organising against racism and the far right and to provide support for fans to combat racism on the terraces. The rationale for the tournament was to bring together communities through a festival of football and music.

From the start the tournament has tried to create links between migrant communities and the ultra fans. This aim has always been central to the ethos of the tournament with the football supposedly taking a backstage.

The winner of the main trophy each year is not the team who wins the tournament, but the team who has demonstrated a commitment to anti-racist work throughout the year. Each team is asked to bring a presentation or poster that details their work over the year and those that do are given an additional 3 points in the group stages of the competition.

Taking the overly competitive attitude out of the football has not always been easy – following fights during a semi-final match one year the football tournament was halted for that year and the final replaced with discussion about the future of the tournament. Since then, all matches in the final stages of the tournament are decided by penalties.

Republica has won the Mondiali Antirazzisti trophy – in 2006 we were (to our) surprise recipients -- most of the team had already left the award ceremony and sloped off to the bar when the winner was announced! It was a huge honour but one that we felt like we didn’t deserve -- as a club we had been out leafletting that year against the BNP who were standing in elections in Morley and we had organised a mini tournament for FARE week but that seemed like small fry in comparison to the work other groups had been involved in. We had made a club donation to the tournament that year from our ethical fund and we did worry that we had ‘bought’ the trophy.

We were though particularly proud of our result in the football tournament – we made it to the quarter finals that year playing with the only truly mixed team in the main tournament. Most of the 204 teams were all male, a few teams had one or perhaps two women that were used as substitutes. We played at all times with equality on the pitch (well as equal as you can be with 7-a-side teams!). We lost narrowly to a very good team of Bordeaux Ultras.

Despite our reservations about the merits of our win, we partied hard that night and it was a slog waiting in the airport lounge at Bologna for our flight home. We thought that paranoia had kicked in from the lack of sleep and over consumption of half-litre servings of cheap Italian wine as there was a distinct feeling of being pointed at and talked about. It turned out that it wasn’t paranoia – we had made it onto the back page of the local newspaper with a picture of us picking up the trophy -- we were briefly celebrities!

If you like (very) hot weather, the occasional tropical storm, football chanting that goes on forever and meeting people from all over the world then Mondiali is definitely a tournament to experience. Hopefully the region will recover from COVID-19 and the tournament will be back up and running in 2021!