On the third Thursday of June the curtain finally came down on a predominantly fan free professional Calcio season. Despite the lack of tifosi, the Italian game was one of the shining lights of the lockdown era, with truly exhilarating action. It was absolutely absorbing stuff. If the top tier had delivered a changing of the guard with Inter finally breaking the domination by Juve, and Serie B brought one of the most passionate fan bases (Salernitana), and the most iconic old stadio (The Penzo, Venezia) back to the top table, that last night of the season saved the best until last for me. US Alessandria, one of the great names of yesteryear Calcio, with their unique grey shirts have finally ascended back to the second division having been away for 46 long years!
One of my great football escapes through this torrid period in life for us all, was enjoying a variety of games each week from the choice of every single game on the roster via my Serie C subscription. Regular readers may have spotted I have brought a lot of Serie C clubs to life in the magazine, and telling the story of i Grigi, the greys is long overdue.
Only the league winners from the three Girone (leagues) automatically go to Serie B. The runaway winners of Girone C, Ternana were first to celebrate, but the other two leagues went down to the penultimate and last round of fixtures. Como beat Alessandria with one round to spare, thereby condemning the Greys to weeks of continued training and action. On the last day, Perugia, who only hit the top the week before, held their nerve in Salo to join great Umbrian rivals Ternana in B, thus breaking Padovan hearts, sending them into the dreaded, but exciting 28 team play off. Serie B 2021/22 had already received three great clubs, and one of the best derbies is back when Ternana and Perugia clash this coming season. Perugia had to re-assemble a squad in July 2020 to fight to retain their place in B against Pescara, which they ultimately lost, but ironically as they make an immediate return, Pescara are down in C for the new campaign.
Finishing second in the league table afforded Alessandria and Padova (as well as Catanzaro) weeks off, entering the play offs at the Quarter Final stage. Despite both these clubs being pipped at the post for top spot, they mustered sufficient endeavour to make it through to the final. This was new territory for Padova, but Alessandria had made the inaugural “enlarged” play off final in 2016, a one of match played in Firenze, where they came up against a resurgent Parma and lost out, delaying that illusive return to B by another five seasons. In another twist of fate, they will now come across Parma in a league fixture with the Emilia Romagna club relegated from Serie A.
The play off final was two very tight games, there was literally nothing between the teams, with the first leg at the Eugenio in Padova, and the return at the Moccagatta in Alessandria both finishing goalless, but not because of a lack of endeavour. Now having watched the entire Serie C season, and been captivated by the play offs, you can imagine my angst as life starts to show signs of going back to a semblance of normality in some, when extra-time and the subsequent penalty shoot out had to be missed as I was going out for a meal! The match had been delayed at relatively short notice by 24 hours as Italy were hosting Switzerland on Wednesday in the Euros, and I’d arranged to meet friends on Thursday believing all I was missing was Netherlands v Austria. As it was, while I was chomping on my tasty Venezuelan Arepas, Alessandria held their nerve and converted all five of their spot kicks, having watched Padova do likewise until the second last spotkick of the 10 was missed. By the smallest of margins they’d done it, but who in grey at the Moccagatta or in Alessandria were giving a hoot about that, 46 years of near things and hurt was over. It was a joyful moment. If there had been a feeling there was a curse on the club, at a stroke of an accurately converted penalty it was over.
Alessandria is a city of 94,000 inhabitants in South Eastern Piemonte, a region where Torino, the capital is 90 kilometres to the west, with Milan also around the same distance north east. The proximity of these two big cities has traditionally seen Alessandria as a major railway hub. It isn’t a tourist town, but a bustling commercial centre for the surrounding area. It’s strategic position where two rivers converge, the Tanaro and Bormida, meant it was targeted for heavy bombing during the Second World War. Two of its most famous sons were writer Umberto Ecco and the great footballer Gianni Rivera, now a politician, but an AC Milan legend from 1960 to 1979. He started his two club career with a first season at his home town team, where he contributed 6 goals in 26 appearances for i Grigi before being whisked off to the Italian giants. Gianni also won 60 caps for gli Azzurri.
US Alessandria started out as a club in 1912, born into a region that had already established itself as the “hotbed” of calcio. Indeed, to this day no other region has come close to the number of Scudetti won, largely thanks to Juventus, but the spread of clubs having won titles is remarkable, with five Piemonte sides having won the big one, with the likes of Pro Vercelli and local rivals Casale both brought to life on these pages in recent months. Alessandria, despite being amongst the inaugural clubs to participate in the 1929 Serie A campaign missed the boat in terms of winning a championship. Indeed, throughout the club’s history they have a habit of being labelled the nearly men. Just before the united league started, in 1928, they came as close to winning a title as ever, but skulduggery might have been in play by Casale who let Torino thrash them, leaving Alessandria an impossible task on the last day versus Torino, a game they won, but to no avail. “The bridesmaid” tag started growing arms and legs around this time as Toro won the title. It was an event investigated by the authorities but no undue evidence was uncovered to throw mud at Casale. A year before they had beaten Casale to win the Coni Cup (whatever that was!) 3-2 on aggregate, one of the few times they got the better of their rivals in those days, but unlike Alessandria, Casale has a Scudetto title to their name.
Alessandria dotted in and out of the top flight far longer than many of their near rivals, but relegation in ‘59/60 signalled the last time the club would grace Serie A. They soon fell further into the third tier, where in 1973, one claim they could make was winning the first ever Coppa Italia C beating Avellino in the final. This success heralded a brief season in Serie B following promotion the season after, but that’s as good as it has been until the recent penalty shoot out success. In more modern times, they did make the 2015/16 Semi Final of the full Coppa Italia, a remarkable effort by a third tier side in a competition so blatantly set out like a tennis ladder to always favour the top dogs. That need to pander to the monied end of calcio has now gone a step too far, with the 21/22 edition now excluding everyone except the Serie A and B teams, totally unacceptable in my book, and I won’t be watching that competition ever again. There is a need for fans to stand up to the greed of the top end clubs in every country in my view. That cup run, coupled with running Parma close in the expanded Serie C Play Off Final heralded brighter days for the greys. Especially bright days given in 2003 they went bankrupt (just when you thought I had unearthed another bankruptcy free tale, alas!). Nuova Alessandria briefly existed in the Piemonte Region Excellenza in 2004, but upon regaining league status soon after, the name reverted to type and they all went along like before.
The fabulously named Stadio Moccagatta has a trim 6,000 capacity, it is suffice for Serie B, but if ambition stretches to recapturing the true glory days, this fabulous venue would struggle to allow entry for a greater number of spectators as it is pretty much shoehorned in amongst flats and roads. There are two apartment blocks with the best balconies in football opposite the main stand, with each flat having a perfect view of the entire stadium. Even with fans allowed back for the final versus Padova, albeit a limited number, social distancing was literally out the window on these balconies, packed with four or five fans, all except the top right flat, shutters resolutely down, they must be Casale fans! The balcony view isn’t uncommon in many Italian venues, Stadio Dorico in Ancona used to have a sizable number of out of venue supporters, and many others have such unofficial facilities, especially in the south of the country, Reggina and Messina amongst them.
When I was at the Moccagatta on a relatively grey late February afternoon, where the sky matched the Alessandria shirts, only two hardy souls were on the balconies opposite watching the action. Then again, these were pre-pandemic days when going to watch a game was just taken for granted. The stadium has been buffed up in the last two or three years, whether in anticipation of finally retracing steps back to Serie B, or the club having been aided financially by being host to the controversial Juve U23 side that was airdropped directly into the third tier three seasons ago now. The rationale was that there were too many clubs going bust (true, granted), and yet many well organised clubs from their own town were overlooked from the league below to allow this to happen, thereby denying professional contracts to players and staff from elsewhere. Thankfully Juve II have failed to progress from this tier, but rather horribly the arrangement doesn’t prevent them reaching the Serie B. They might have been good for business in Alessandria, although in truth hardly anyone turns up to watch the Juve kids, but given the size of the roster of clubs in Italy, and that each of these smaller towns has great passion for their local club, especially in light of the Super League fiasco, one sanction the FIGC should be looking to exact on the Turin giants is the withdrawal of privileges of having a reserve side in the league pyramid system. For the record, no other top club side has a team, even as low as the 8th or 9th tier. They all play in a separate league, aside from Juve U23, which is exactly where they should be.
The stadium is about a 25 minutes walk from the railway station, quite a straight route, but the easiest way of not using online map guidance is to turn left outside the railway station on the main road, and follow it along until you come to the river. Instead of crossing the bridge, stay on the near side of the water having turned right at the bridge and follow the road down the river edge until the fabulous floodlights of the Moccagatta come into view. The stadium isn’t right on the river, but close enough that by taking this route the lights will eventually guide you. The streets around the ground are largely residential and small business premises, but not bars or restaurants, so if you are looking for something authentic from the culinary delights of Piemonte and have time, head for the town centre for chomp and quaff ahead of pitching up to watch US Alessandria. Where else in the world, unless some plagiarist has chosen their colours as a change kit, can you watch the grey and blacks?
There will be much excitement and much promise in Alessandria as the club trot out in big Serie B encounters this coming season. The absence of second flight football for so long, coupled with the lengthy exclusion of fans because of the virus could have a fabulous effect on i grigi as they tackle the next challenge. Ancona were more than 50 years away from Serie B and it propelled them and the fans a long, long way to our greatest days in the club’s history. Alessandria have a greater story to tell and are curmudgeonly well regarded in Italy, where no one would begrudge this club whatever successes are written in the stars for the future. It would be a pleasure to see them playing at these lofty heights in the stadio, let’s hope it is possible soon.
Football Adventures with James Rendall 