Torneo Pezzana
Grassroots football in Rome

www.torneopezzana.it

By Marco Fagioli
november 2008

The bitter rivalry between Rome’s top professional soccer clubs AS Roma and SS Lazio is well known even outside Italy, but that is nothing compared to the fierce antagonism that flares when teams from the city’s amateur sports clubs clash. The real derby is not played on the plush green turf of the Olympic Stadium but on dozens of synthetic all-weather pitches measuring 40x60m where teams of eight-a-side battle it out across the capital.

Rome was the birthplace of futsal football in Italy. Not many know that for more than 30 years the eight-man version – in Italian handily known as “calciotto” (calcio=football + otto=eight) – has been the most popular sport among amateur players in the capital.
“ Calciotto is hugely popular. It far more similar to the traditional game than futsal,” explained Andrea Antenucci, the organiser and president of the Torneo Pezzana, the oldest soccer tournament in Rome for eight-a-side teams.

Calciotto was invented by chance in 1978 when, in via Pezzana near the elegant residential district of Parioli, a full-sized football pitch for amateur teams of 11 players a side was cut in half because of city council plans to build a mosque near the site.
“ What were we supposed to do?,” asks Antenucci. “No way were we going to abandon our sports field. There was only one solution: the pitch is smaller? All right, then. We’ll use fewer players!” From its beginning the number of teams taking part in the Torneo Pezzana increased every year. Word of mouth meant the competition soon became a huge success.

Thirty years on more than 2,500 players in Rome regularly turn out for eight-a-side games. A fully-fledged national calciotto championship is now in its third season. The latest edition of the Pezzana tournament attracted more than 40 teams playing in two parallel competitions: one for Over-40’s, one for younger players.

What are the reason’s for the sport’s phenomenal success? “First of all Romans are deeply passionate about football,” says Antenucci. “Then because organisation of sport at amateur level in the city is more or less non-existent.
“ Also the level of competition has risen consistently. A lot of ex-professionals have now joined our ranks. This year Mihajlovic and Di Canio (two former star players in Serie A for Lazio) have signed on to play.”
The tournament has become so popular it now needs its own press office.
“ For the game between Canottieri Roma and Canottieri Lazio there were more than 500 spectators,” confirms Antenucci, adding: “Our web-site is now constantly updated with news, photos and comments; and there’s an archive section with photos since the start of the tournament.”
Rivalry, fierce competition and goals. But that’s not all. Last March organisers set up the first “Memorial Raciti” Tournament in honour of the Sicilian policeman Filippo Raciti who was killed in February 2007 during clashes between rival fans before the Catania–Palermo Serie A match.
Antenucci describes the event as “a huge success.” The organisers involved the schools in Rome in the tournament in an effort to raise awareness among children of issues related to violence and crime in general.
“ In 2009 we’d like to make it a national event. We’re currently looking for commercial partners who can help turn this dream into a reality.“
Perhaps one day there will even be a world championship for calciotto. Whatever happens, the sport has certainly come a long way since it all began when a municipal building project meant a dusty all-weather pitch was chopped in half.