Supporters and Rivalries
Roma is the fifth most supported football club in Italy behind Juventus, Internazionale, Milan and Napoli with around 7% of Italian football fans supporting the club (according to the Doxa Institute-L'Espresso’s research of April 2006). Historically the largest section of Roma supporters in the city of Rome have come from the inner-city, especially Testaccio.
The traditional ultras group of the club was Commando Ultrà Curva Sud commonly abbreviated as CUCS; this group was founded by the merger of many smallers groups and was considered one of the most historic in the history of European football. However, by the mid-1990s CUCS had been usurped by rival factions and ultimately broke up. Since that time, the Curva Sud of the Stadio Olimpico has been controlled by more right-wing groups; A.S. Roma Ultras, Boys, Giovinezza and others. The oldest group Fedayn is apolitical however and politics is not the raison d'être of Roma, just a part of their overall identity. In September 2009 the club unveiled plans to build a new 55,000-capacity stadium in Rome's western suburbs.
The most known club anthem and motto is Roma,Roma,Roma by singer Antonello Venditti. The title roughly means "Roma is not to be questioned, it is to be loved" and is sung before each match. The song Grazie Roma, by the same singer, is played at the end of victorious home games. Recently, the main riff of The White Stripes song Seven Nation Army has also become widely popular at games.
Read more about this topic: A.S. Roma
Famous quotes containing the word supporters:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)