Monday 24 June at 6pm in the Sala Panini of the PalabancaEventi (formerly Palazzo Galli) in via Mazzini 14 in Piacenza, “50 years with the Torneo Libertas” will be presented, a book written by Matteo Marchetti which tells the story of the golden anniversary of the most important football event and long-lived in the Piacenza area and beyond. Entrance is free and open to all, a way to retrace half a century of history through anecdotes, curiosities, emotions and interviews with the protagonists of what is reductive to define only as a football tournament. For those who wish, at the end of the presentation there will also be the opportunity to visit the Immersive Icons Exhibition in the Sforza Fogliani Hall.
The latest effort by journalist Matteo Marchetti is a beautiful book, dedicated to the history of the Libertas Tournament, entitled “Fifty years with the Libertas tournament” published by AC Libertas (pp. 120) with presentation by vice-president Sauro Avarucci and preface by Giorgio Lambri and created thanks to the support of the Bank of Piacenza, the Piacenza and Vigevano Foundation, Delta Inox and Sercom.
A beautiful book because Marchetti in his ride through the scent of time mixes the past with the present, a bygone period and recent memories with great sensitivity. The carefree and sweet years of Gragnano had just ended, where between June and July people spent the morning at the town field, the Piccolo Maracanà, and almost like magic in the Lower Piacentina football returns to fly some time later at the field in via Molinari , when the first edition of the Libertas Tournament began in 1973. A story that still goes on today, even if the charm of the first editions has something magical and extraordinary. Marchetti accompanies us on this journey of memories and microhistory and the narration takes us back to the beautiful tale of that tournament which became part of the life not only of a neighbourhood, but of the Bassa, from Parma to Reggio, from Brescia to Cremona, from Lodi to Alessandria. It was the members of the then Libertas Board of Directors who started this summer football tournament. The charm of Gragnano had faded. They aimed for a structured event with a high potential for participation; Sponsors flocked and the dream became reality. The book contains the creators, from Pietro Bugliani to Piero Tappani, without forgetting Gino Anelli and Don Aldo Corbelletta or Angelo Merli.
And in the rectangle of grass, brightly lit by the headlights that dazzled the dreams and the moon, the symbolic characters were born in a small ancient world: the loudspeaker that blasted songs, the green wall of cypress trees, the wooden stands and the people who packed this tournament: two, three thousand people per evening. There are teams that have made the tournament a long history of football, starting from the Azienda Agricola Vitelmi of Castelsangiovanni (it won the tournament in 1974 in the second edition) to the Autoscuola Dante which won the first edition, from the Confezioni Pino to the Discoteca Vecchio Salsomaggiore Park (winner in 1987), from the unforgettable Impianti Gasauto Fantoni which brought top players every summerbut either due to too much passion, or because football is strange, it began to win when it changed its name, becoming the “Weak and Weak” to finally win the title with its own name in 2008. Distant memories: the Pizzeria Bernini, the Bar London and Bar Sport, Sab Arredamenti and Bar Boeri, Calzature Renzo Tacchini of Pontedellolio and Acconciature Emiliano of Guardamiglio, Prosciuttificio Valserio (first place in 1984) coming from the upper Bergamo area, Officina Meccanica Boselli of Polignano winner in 1979, but also many teams from Codogno, Crema, Garlasco, Fidenza, Cremona. In just a few years, the tournament became a point of reference for amateur football, with several professionals also taking partSerie C and Serie B players who played under their name for a few years and when Roberto Boninsegna kicked off the event in one of the first editions in front of thousands of spectators, he signed hundreds of autographs.
Distant stories, players from times gone by, the professionals of the summer: Titti Ascagni, Natalino Gottardo, Giorgio Gambin, but one above all is the legendary Villa who went from Ospitaletto to Bologna. And again, Lucchetti from Vicenza, Schillirò from Novara, Vaccario from Pergocrema, Andrea Bottazzi, but also Camillo Grazioli and Beppe Boeri, Camillo Orsi, the unstoppable Vaccario; in short, high-level players who for years have made the Libertas Tournament an event of great interest and in the Lower Piacenza area the ball was flying. And thanks to this work desired by the current organizers of the tournament, Marchetti with rigor and precision citing all the finals played in the fifty years of life of the tournament, brings to light a cultural phenomenon that has managed to transcend sport in the strict sense, because over the years the pitch in via Molinari has also become one of the improvised but very popular venues of the amateur market. In short, yes, yes, but up to a certain point. Ergo, a good book.
