The culture of the curve without forgetting that life is also something else. Its soul is Maurizio Criscitelli. Among the partners are lawyers, magistrates, journalists
Napoli Club Bologna, twenty years of supporting legality and those in need
Sunday lunchtime. Bologna. Pilastro neighborhood. A small public garden with an Arci club, “Porta Pazienza”. Six, seven shorts, English style, in short. And t-shirts puffed up in various atmospheres. The heat, that humid heat that seems like August 15th, forces the volunteers to take a breath, sipping one, two, three… draft beers. They are the members of the Napoli Club Bologna, Ncb, who are about to unleash hell, the party for the twentieth anniversary of the club.
A dozen or so rice balls arrive, and we have a snack of croutons with ‘nduja. We cut peppers, eggplants and courgettes that will be grilled. And we go and get sausages and bacon sandwiches.
Even though President Maurizio Criscitelli has halved his weight in three years, losing 75 kilos, and even though some of his volunteers have followed the president in this suicidal race to see who drinks and eats the least, binge eating and drinking have still been the founding values of the NCB’s being together for many years.
Of course, the social reason of the Ncb “is identity and passion”, it is the beautiful support and love for a team, Napoli. And it is also the suffering and recent disappointments. However, being together makes a community of men and women, wives and children happy who arrive at the party wearing the most beautiful shirts in the world.
The Napoli Club Bologna is a magnet for Neapolitans in the diaspora
Fans. Those who have emigrated for thirty years, their children who speak Bolognese but cheer for their fathers’ team. But the NCB is also a magnet for Neapolitans in the diaspora, those who live in isolation – lawyers, magistrates, journalists – half of the suffering humanity that comes to life at the Maradona Stadium or in front of the screen.
Twenty years of life, they tell the hidden beauty of Naples. One thinks of a supporters’ club and imagines the ultras, the curves, the pressure. The NCB is another story. It is clear that it has the “culture” of the curve in its DNA. In short, “we can watch the game at home afterwards, because we have to huddle together, raise slogans, talk to each other.” But find another club, which was also the Vatican’s favorite team, which organizes social dinners to finance Roberto Morgantini’s popular canteens in Bologna, or Giancarlo Siani’s Mehari exhibition, or the packages against the Camorra of the products of the land confiscated from the mafiosi, camorristi.
Maurizio Criscitelli is a war machine. Already last year and this year too he will bring social hardship to Di Sto, the unfortunate children of Naples. Five boys from “Carmela” (‘Friends in the Family’ Association) who, through their passion for football and their support for Napoli, experience emotions that are denied in everyday life.
Thank you for existing, Napoli club Bologna. An image from the past remains in the memory. Manchester-Napoli. The Air One flight from Bologna arrives three hours late. One of our liaison officers calls the Digos official who followed Napoli and its fans on all away games. “Dear… and how are we going to take our bags to the stadium? We can’t go to a hotel”.
And no, and you can’t go to a hotel… Caruo’: “Come, don’t worry. We put the bags in an English police van.”
