In 2019, in the middle of the Women's World Cup, Federica Seneghini, a
journalist at Corriere della Serra, sets out to trace the first Italianwomen's footballers. She meets Marco Giani, a specialist in the
intersecting history of women's sport and fascism. This exchange goes
far beyond the framework of a classic interview: Seneghini knows that
she will need more than a piece of writing to pay tribute to the
Milanese women's footballers who, formed as a team in 1931, stood up to
a sexist sports and media world, to the spectators who came to
discourage them (or even insult them), and to Mussolini himself. Let
women play sports in fascist Italy, fine, but let them at least choose
an Olympic discipline to represent the nation and the Dulce at the
Berlin games! The Milanese women did not give in, at first, playing in
skirts and city shoes - due to lack of equipment -, playing against
public opinion and prejudices.
This article, originally published by the Spanish media ctxt and
translated and published in French in the online magazine Ballast,
traces the history of the Milanese team and the journalist.
When Federica Seneghini opens the first folder, a black and white
photograph catches her eye among the documents. She takes it and smiles
when she sees how the young footballers in it laugh. The photo, very
clear, evokes another football: the one that was played with five
attackers, three midfielders and only two defenders to protect the
goalkeeper from shots. She quickly finds their names: Mina Lang, Ester
Dal Pan, Ninì Zanetti, Marta Boccalini, Nidia Glingani, Maria Lucchese,
Augusta Salina, Luisa Boccanili and Navazzotti.
Months go by and Federica discovers that these same women were the
protagonists of one of the most representative episodes of the women's
football struggle.
They fought this struggle in skirts, without fearing the blows they
received for having opened a breach in a terribly macho world - the
fascist world of Mussolini. Just take a look at the publications of the
time: "If there is a sport that women should not practice, it is
football", stated Lo Sport Fascista in December 1931. These young women
have not known the world before the Duce. They are used to the
harassment of the blackshirts.
To the severity of a religious regime, to curfews at home. To serving
men. To the stove and the needle. To marriage, to the education of
children and to the well-being of their husbands as their only future.
* Federica Seneghini, Giovinette. Le calciatrici che sfidarono il Duce,
Edition Solferino, 2020, 16.50 euros
The fight
Only Ninì Zanetti had had the chance to play football. It was during a
holiday in Castiglionecello. She spent every afternoon there with a
group of young Roman women, to train. She had enjoyed the sport so much
that she dared to write to La Domenica Sportiva.
Against all expectations, her letter was published: "Why couldn't there
be a women's football team in Italy? Wouldn't it be interesting to see
that even in this kind of sport, Italian women can compete with
foreigners, and perhaps even surpass them?"
One Sunday in 1932, this same Zanetti went to the park to meet up with
her friends after stealing a ball from her brother. There, she took out
the ball and said the phrase that would change her life forever: "So
what? Shall we try?"
That same year, the Duce announced that the next World Cup would be
played in Italy. Calcio (Italian national football championship) then
became one of the main propaganda tools of Mussolini, "the first of
Italian sportsmen", to control the masses. Stadiums were built in Udine,
Florence, Bologna, Trieste. The jewel in the crown: the sumptuous Stadio
Mussolini in Turin, home ground of Juventus.
In the higher echelons of power, Mussolini also wanted to be proud of
his boys. He placed the Azzurra (named after the Italian men's national
team) in the hands of Vittorio Pozzo, a lieutenant of the Alpine troops
well-versed in the art of discipline. Pozzo travels the country looking
for talented players, and finds them: Meazza, Combi, Ferrari, Guaita and
Orsi form a squadra that seduces the entire country, even the Milanese
footballers.
The flame
The Milanese decide to send a new letter that appears several weeks
later in Guerin Sportivo. "A group of passionate women has taken the
initiative to create a team of women footballers" it is written.
"Everything will be in accordance with the[female]sex[...]. The idea of
the founders is to practice football as a physical exercise, without any
more ambition." As if it could not help itself, the newspaper Il
Littoriale adds a comment: "When Saint Benedict of Nursia said to his
monks Mens sana in corpore sano, he could not imagine that the time
would come when nice little girls would use his motto to play football."
Housewives, milliners, teachers, seamstresses and employees answered
their call. The footballers received the support of the actress Leda
Gloria, a Roma supporter, as well as dozens of telegrams from
professional players. A flame had been lit. "We felt invincible when we
saw our words and our names written in black and white. Invincible and
united. Football is a wonderful game and we were going to be able to
realize it by playing it."»
Before that, each player must obtain permission from her father to play.
Also, the young sportswomen must pass through the hands of the
gynecologist Ruani so that he can certify that football would not affect
their health or their femininity.
The spark of hope that had lit their path quickly ignites the
newspapers. La Gazzetta defines their game as "neither football nor
feminine". Il Regime Fascista writes: "Let's hope that the curtain falls
after the first act and that we no longer talk about footballers in
skirts." Lo Schermo Sportivo, for its part, describes their practice as
"anti-sport", an "American farce".
The girls have found a sponsor: Cinzano. They will have their jersey. By
playing, they feel free, liberated. Even if they have to practice sport
in a skirt. "And perhaps that is why, shortly after, the fascists wanted
us to understand that, in this wonderful game that is life, it was they,
always, who made the rules."
The first of these: a woman could not be a goalkeeper because a shot
could endanger her fertility. So they decided to play with a boy in
goal. But, here again, they received criticism. "Alone, with our own
hands, we were facing fascism. We were beginning, to our great regret,
to realize it."
Other rules affected their way of playing: a lighter ball, the
obligation to only make passes on the ground. And the worst of all: the
need for authorization from the Federation to be able to continue
playing. The great leader of Italian sport now had the fate of the team
in his hands. He reread the initial letter.
And, surprisingly, he allowed them to play. On one condition, however:
that the "experiment" that was women's football took place in closed
stadiums, without spectators.
The approach of the 1936 Olympic Games improved the situation of women
in sport: they too could bring medals and glory to their country. But
women's football was not an Olympic discipline, which provoked new
attacks from the press.
However, a light shone in the darkness: other women's teams were born.
The Milanese sent a new note in the press to propose a match against the
players of Alessandria. Three days later, they received a call. The
girls from Alessandria had already played against the youngsters of La
Serenissima, and had won by five goals to zero.
But they wanted to play against another women's team. They wanted to
play against the Milanese. This official match, exclusively for women,
would remain in Italian history as the first to have taken place between
two cities.
The story of a prejudice and a fight
The date of October 1st was agreed upon. Ugo Cardone bought train
tickets to Alessandria for all the players. For weeks, they trained even
harder. One day, they were visited by three male officials of the regime
during a training session. They wanted to assess the physical virtues of
the players.
Then, they went to see Ugo Cardosi to convince him to redirect the
girls' sportsmanship towards an Olympic sport. Cardosi's protests were
useless, nor was the players' revolt against the imposed rules: "We
ended up trying to hit the ball with our heads and stop it with our
chests, we pushed aside the male goalkeepers[...]. Now that the end was
approaching, we wanted to get rid of the thorn that was preventing us
from doing things the way we wanted."
They never got to play that game. The regime forced them to turn to
other sports. For decades, the story of that discrimination and that
fight was buried, until historian Marco Giani unearthed it so that
everyone, everywhere, could "reflect on how Rosetta, Losanna, Ninì and
Marta were, in Milan in 1933, the first brave and unfortunate fighters
in a long struggle against a common and unwavering thought in the minds
of so many Italians (and, unfortunately, internalized by Italian women).
This idea that football is not a sport for girls."
Miguel Ángel Ortiz Olivera
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Histoire-Aux-origines-antifascistes-du-foot-feminin-italien
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