BARI FOOTBALL FAN

BARI <br /> <br /> For anyone into football who grew up in the UK in the ‘90s, three words evoke instant nostalgia: Gazzetta Football Italia. From 1992, Channel 4 would show a live game from Italy’s Serie A on a Sunday afternoon, at a time when Serie A was by far the best league in the world, if not of all time. But the real jewel in the crown was the following Saturday morning’s highlight show, when highlights of the previous Sunday’s games would be shown, as well as interviews with players and the week’s news presented by James Richardson outside bar in a different Italian city every week, often in a very witty and dry humoured way. This was at a time when the vastly inferior English and Scottish leagues had disappeared behind a paywall on Sky TV, while every week Channel 4 blessed us with the greatest teams and players in the world, all for free. The names are embedded in the minds of everyone who grew up during that time: Baggio, Batistuta, Signori, Mancini, Maldini, Del Piero, Pagliuca, Van Basten, Gullit…..if ever a list was endless, it’s this one. The kits were great, and the stadiums with the noise and colour were spectacular. It was a glamorous window into a world far away from the comparatively grey English and Scottish leagues. Everyone at school chose their own team: I chose Sampdoria, primarily because of their kit. But for those who were really into it, it wasn’t only the superstar names and big teams that stuck in the memory: even names such as Protti, Tovalieri, Osmanovski, Ventola, Masinga and Ingesson from a smaller team like Bari would instantly provoke memories on Gazzetta Football Italia on a Saturday morning. <br /> So when I had the opportunity to move to Bari to teach English in 2018, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to visit the Stadio San Nicola (nicknamed ‘L’Astronave – the Spaceship, for obvious reasons) to watch Bari. There was also a sense of destiny, as in 1991 Red Star Belgrade won the European Cup against Marseille at the Stadio San Nicola….one of my first football memories was watching that game on TV as a 7 year old. Who would guess that nearly 30 years later I would visit l’Astronave? Not only was there this coincidence, but the fact that Bari shared a strong friendship, or ‘twinning’, with Sampdoria (who I followed on TV in the ‘90s) and Reggina (from Reggio Calabria) and Salernitana (Salerno) from which both cities I had friends from my time living in Edinburgh. At this point, it genuinely did feel like destiny. <br /> Also at this point however, I had no idea about the journey I was about to embark on. <br /> Really, I couldn’t have arrived in Bari at a worse time: Bari had just been demoted to Serie D for financial regulations and were at an all-time low. My first game was a midweek Coppa Italia game against Bitonto, a sparsely attended game which ended in a 1-0 defeat for Bari. However, I still remember entering the stadium and the Curva Nord for the first time, and I could almost picture Robert Prosinecki scoring his penalty for Red Star Belgrade against Marseille all those years ago. From that moment there was no going back…… <br /> I decided from that point I was going to attend all the home games, and Bari ended the season by winning Serie D and thus gaining promotion to Serie C, when I made the decision to buy my first season ticket. I decided to also start attending some away games, when possible. At the start of that season in Serie C, my friend Gianluca, who is a journalist, published a story about ‘the first Scottish season ticket holder at the San Nicola’, which led to me receiving many messages from fans and lots of positive reactions. Unfortunately that season was interrupted by Covid, and the season after was a complete disaster, but Bari ended the 2021-22 season with direct promotion to Serie B, confirming promotion with a victory at Latina, and I had the privilege of being there. <br /> The next season in Serie B was something almost nobody saw coming: Bari, newly promoted from Serie C, came within 2 minutes of promotion to Serie A, but were denied by a 94th minute goal by Cagliari, which sent them to Serie A instead: a moment which still haunts the city, and if you mention the date 11th June 2023, everyone in Bari instantly knows what you are referring to. <br /> Since then, the last couple of seasons have been something of a mediocrity, with Bari generally drifting and being within 90 minutes of being relegated back to Serie C, the club and fans still haunted by the 11th June, and with the fans against the owners for a lack of ambition and the feeling they are the second team to Napoli, who are also owned by the De Laurentiis family. <br /> However, I will still be at the San Nicola every home game, and continue to support the team, as I have done since I arrived: I haven’t missed a home game since December 2018. For me, going to the stadium isn’t just something you do to watch a winning team: for me my decision to go to the stadium isn’t based on whether the team are doing well or badly; it’s about going to support the team, spending time with friends and a form of escape from the stresses of the week (although one could add watching Bari causes more stress!) <br /> Either way, it’s been an incredible personal journey which it could be argued started way back in the days of Gazzetta Football Italia on Channel 4 in the early ‘90s, which undoubtedly had a profound influence on me, and long may it continue. <br /> <br /> MY 5 FAVOURITE BARI GAMES <br /> <br /> 1. Bari 2 Virtus Francavilla 1 2022 <br /> 2. Bari 4 Modena 1 2022 <br /> 3. Campobasso 1 Bari 3 2021 <br /> 4. Latina 0 Bari 1 2022 <br /> 5. Bari 4 Nocerina 0 2018 <br />