I finally made it to Terni! More than two years after an aborted trip to the city, courtesy of the pandemic, I promised myself I would still head in that direction thereby honouring my original plan of where I would take in my 200th game outside the UK.
In a non Covid world, the 2020 plan had included Perugia, with the idea of doing an Umbrian Guide. Such notions can still be arranged in the future, with Gubbio and Orvietana thrown in, however, it was only upon arriving in Terni that I realised this city and its team, Ternana deserve an article to themselves as they have both a fascinating and utterly tragic history that deserves to be told.
Umbria might be considered a relatively sleepy hollow when it comes to football, but in the general world it is one of the most desirable places to stay, or to merely visit, running Tuscany a close second in that department. The scenery of the two regions are almost identical, both with rolling hills, and they may be higher in certain parts of Umbria, with small pockets of snow still visible in crevices of the higher peaks above Terni.
If many of Umbria’s towns or cities (they don’t have many of them) are built on steep slopes, Terni is the exception. It might be surrounded by hills, but down in the city it is practically as flat as a pancake, which is a complete contrast to Perugia, the rival city. Step off a train there and you are immediately looking up, and up. It’s a mini mountaineering expedition up to the beautiful historic centre of Perugia, where the option to cheat is provided with a number of escalators taking the load for you, thereby making sure you don’t arrive in the mediaeval gem, Piazza IV Novembre in a puddle of sweat! A hilltop, ancient city certainly beats a flat alternative for vistas every day of the week for me, and they are truly spectacular in Perugia, but Terni affords you views in the opposite direction, looking up at the hills, where in other parts of Umbria they would have built your house back in the day!
Terni was a steel town, and if you needed any reminding of that fact, an enormous 12,000 ton steel press sits right across from the railway station. It’s a striking statue, obviously now redundant, but acting as a piece of living history, a reminder before you even venture anywhere in Terni of what a hard working city this once was, and to be honest, probably still is to this day. That industriousness brought the city a lot of unwanted attention during WWII, when the Americans nearly blasted the city off the map with an almighty bombing campaign. They were essentially after the steel works, as well as tank/munitions factories on the outskirts, but invariably a lot of the city was indiscriminately hit too.
Modern day Terni has rebuilt itself magnificently, and while doubtlessly many buildings aren’t as old as they appear, that is testimony to how the city has been lovingly restored to its former glory over the decades since the war. The steel works finally closed in the early ‘90’s leaving Terni with a need to reinvent itself. Like other such cities around the world, the steeltown people are a proud group. I have no idea who the local club have fan friendships with, aside from Livorno and Sampdoria in Italy, but Ternana and Motherwell would be a tremendous link up, as both places have more in common than just football, although you could easily add Scunthorpe, Middlesbrough and even Redcar to that list, plus doubtlessly others too. I was at a Redcar Athletic game recently where a chap was sporting a Livorno jacket, the left wing, steel town tie up is one step away from being confirmed!
Football in Italy always seems to be aligned to a political stance, be it right or left, and who their fans ultimately become chummy with, or choose to dislike comes from whatever alignment they find themselves attached too. I love Italy, I love its calcio, but given I just dip in here and there where the mood takes me, the clubs that sometimes leave an indelible mark can be from any persuasion as far I am concerned, but it does confuse some of my Italian friends! However, you are not telling me that only Communists go and watch Livorno or Ternana? I doubt it, and while football always tries to find reasons to be different from rivals etc, religion and politics are the worst two that should in my opinion be outed from the game. As I alluded to earlier, the most left wing club in Italy, Livorno are “friends” with Ternana, with their little comrades from Umbria a mere three leagues ahead of them for now.
With a population of 110,000 Terni has the support base to comfortably house a top tier club, a level they have only graced twice thus far, both in quick succession back in the mid ‘70’s. Ternana can always boast that they were the first Umbrian club to reach Serie A, even if Perugia have managed it for longer spells since. Le Fere, (meaning the beasts in Umbrian), as the club are known, have been going for 97 years, albeit tempered by bankruptcy in the ‘90’s when a signing ban upon promotion to Serie B essentially tied one hand behind their back. Predictably they finished bottom that season and the club subsequently went bust, dropping down to the fourth tier, and starting on that favourite Italian club game of snakes and ladders, but unusually, without any more bankruptcy incidents, so hats off to them!
In March 2020 when I originally planned to be in Terni, the club was in the third tier, with Perugia in the second. That season, despite virus lockdowns like us all, Italy played out the season, a little late granted, but they managed it. Ternana had lost the Coppa Italia C Final to Juventus U23 (the first title potentially anywhere in Europe to have gone to essentially a reserve side?). Victory would have given them a leg up through the playoffs, but perhaps that defeat took the edge off the season and they fell short. Meantime Perugia slipped into the Serie B play out positions and lost their second tier status in a two legged joust with Pescara. That meant, last season both the Umbrian “giants” were in the third tier. However the sheer scale of Serie C and its 54 clubs, who are spread across three Girone (groups) means that the geographical split sees clubs, especially in the lower and higher middle regions separated. Ternana and Perugia were placed into two different leagues, therefore denying the region its big derby, but the whole episode worked out rather well for the pair of them, as remarkably they both won their respective Girone, and are enjoying life in Serie B this season, derbies et al.
Ternana’s home ground, Stadio Libero Liberati is an absolute gem of an Italian venue. With a capacity of 17.490 it is more than ready to host the top flight once more should Ternana ever knock on that door again. It is a relatively modern facility too, built only in 1969, but old enough not to be like these dreadful soulless places they build these days under the guise of convenience and comfort. This is a steel town, a hard man’s world, and nowhere in the stadium has a roof, doubtlessly testing the resolve of the fans in the rain. I suspect for the good people of Terni they are well equipped and willing to tough it out when storms come calling.
The Liberati is certainly an unusual three tier stadium, very shallow tiers granted, with an entirely open end that is so far back from the playing surface it begs the question; did someone get carried away whilst constructing it? It has the feel of a US College American Football venue, rather than calcio, but that gives it a unique feel, quirky even, I love it, and the views from the Distinti side, with the hills and city in front of you, wow! It had been a beautiful day, and a 7pm kick off was perfect to catch the last of the sun and its subsequent setting behind the hills, all viewed from within the stadium.
The visitors hailed from the beautiful Puglian city of Lecce in the south. The yo-yo boys of calcio haven’t been up to Serie A for a few seasons now, but they headed north to Terni for this encounter well placed for an automatic promotion berth. The 2021/22 campaign will go down in calcio history as one the most exciting ever in Serie B. With just a handful of games to go, 6 clubs were still harbouring aspirations of a top two finish, with those who might fail in that quest left to take their chance in the playoffs for one last promotion slot. The last two play off places, points wise are quite a considerable distance behind, but those positions were perhaps an enticing prospect for Ternana ahead of this match. Perugia were just ahead of them in the table too, so if promotion was beyond them, getting above their rivals and claiming the bragging rights of Umbria was certainly on the “must do” list.
Ternana wear the unusual colour combo of red and green stripes. This colour scheme is perhaps quite rare in Europe, Lokomotiv Moscow and NEC Nijmegen immediately spring to mind, albeit these shirts are tempered by a morsel of white and black respectively, a caveat that could be thrown in for Fluminense in Brazil (although there red might be more maroon) and Palestino in Chile. In Uruguay three clubs have almost identical kits to Ternana, and hilariously at the time of writing (it won’t last) the top two places in La Primera were filled by a brace of them. The near coast, working town of Maldonado, (which is the Mestre to Venezia equivalent in Uruguay, with glitzy Punta Del Este right next door), is home to league leaders Deportivo. Meantime in the capital, Montevideo (although they play home matches in the interior miles from the capital in the Trinidad region for now in an effort to get a better crowd) are the comparatively new top flight boys Boston River, who just happen to be the Uruguayan President’s team, as well as being coached by my mate Fabian Yantorno who used to play in England and Scotland. The third red and green brigade in Uruguay are maybe the one you will be slightly more familiar with, Rampla Juniors. They are presently a club down on their luck struggling in the second tier and hail from the capital suburb Cerro.
On a perfect balmy warm spring evening, the scene was set for a cracking Serie B clash. Sometimes if a game gets an early goal it sets the pace for the remainder of the action, and in this one Lecce went in front in just the third minute with their first attack. A seemingly harmless low cross along the six yard box wasn’t dealt with by the defenders, and the onrushing forward probably couldn’t believe his luck that not only did he connect with the ball, but more remarkably, with the keeper flapping, it snuck in at the near post.
Before Ternana could roll up their sleeves and seriously get up a head of steam they found themselves two down, and all the portents didn’t look good for the home team. Whether the advantage saw Lecce ease off, or a tactical tweak by the once great striker Cristian Lucarelli, now i rossoverdi (red and greens) coach, Ternana started to show some forward thinking ideas, and just ahead of the break, a series of corners culminated in the last one being nodded home, game on, the tifosi were buoyed.
It’s a curious thing, but whether the home Ultras have fractured at some point, or one faction is slightly too left wing thinking for the other group, I am unsure, but here in the Liberati the hardcore fans are gathered in two separate parts of the curva at opposite ends of the ground! When the healthy visiting brigate (brigade) were factored into the equation, three corners of the stadium were making quite a cacophony of noise, it was almost coming from all sides.
The frisson of possibility continued into the second half after the Ternana goal, and they looked the sharper and most likely to score for the first twenty minutes. That said, when I finally got beyond the excitement and the atmosphere, the brilliantly drilled visitors really weren’t allowing them any clear sights of goal. The game was settled with a third goal for Lecce, when a swift counter and a cracking cross was met beautifully first time. A moment of good fortune saw the ball spin into the back of the net courtesy of the backspin after hitting the underside of the crossbar, but it was a fabulous goal. The home heads understandably dipped having been in control of possession up to that point in the second period, and Lecce took full advantage, quickly scoring a fourth to put the cherry on top of a fine win. There wasn’t any undue disgruntlement or mass walkouts by the fans, perhaps being back in relatively comfortable mid table Serie B is enough this season, but no one could deny Lecce the win, they looked very good.
Rarely has Serie B been so compartmentalised as this term, normally you could throw a blanket over 16 of the 20 clubs, but the 21/22 campaign has seen the top 6 proving a class above the rest, and the bottom 5 a distant bunch scraping to avoid the drop, with the rest stuck in the middle, albeit the promotion playoffs will afford two of them the chance to get involved in the end of season promotion showdowns. It would be ironic and hurt the top boys if the last Serie A berth was taken by one of these clubs who merely made it into the playoffs at the death, but football can sometimes throw up such events.
Getting there
The Stadio Liberati is relatively easy to find from the railway station. It’s on the western outer edge of Terni, and a busy thoroughfare will bring you directly to the stadium if you turn immediately right when you come out of the station, and let the route curve gradually to the left. Walking will take 20 to 25 minutes.
If you are in town for any length of time and find yourself in the lovely city centre, if you follow the main pedestrian route all the way down almost in a straight line from the street to the right of the massive steel press in front of the station, you’ll get there this way too. Eventually having finally come to a road with traffic after 15 minutes of leisurely walking in the wonderful traffic free streets, at this point, if you look to your left and see an extraordinarily massive steel needle in the middle of a roundabout, that is your que to turn right and follow this road round until it brings you to the stadium at the opposite end from the more direct route from the station. This way takes you solely into the home zones of the stadium, and depending on who Ternana are playing, you might find many parts of the more direct route closed off to you at some point by the police as they create a corridor for the visiting fans. I imagine when Perugia come to town, many roads will be closed, but an evening game with Lecce, even with a cracking number in the away end, tensions didn’t seem to exist between the fans. The Perugini were certainly in for a right old bashing all night and they were nowhere to be seen!
Places to eat
There are two bars out on the main road near the home end of the stadium, handy for pre-match quaffing, chatting and backslapping with the Frere faithful, not that they are beasts! At the stadium, and perhaps this was only due to local covid restrictions, but they had nothing open or available. This was a point of angst for your famished writer, who had bargained on getting some calcio chomp ahead the kick off in the form of a piadina or something akin, as catering trucks are always to be had outside venues in Italy, but alas not here at this time. My post match hunger pangs took me almost back to my hotel near the railway station before I found a carry out pizza parlour. Yes, restaurants were open, but after 21,30 on a night when I was getting up at 5,15am, I was just looking for something quick.
No souvenirs were available either at the ground, always a shame when a visitor with a certain enthusiasm for the club, who wanted to add a pennant, scarf or hat to my burgeoning collection from Ternana, but hey, that’s always an excuse to go back, and I would love to watch more calcio here. I was genuinely taken by Terni, the stadium and the club, it was the perfect place to celebrate game 200.
Football Adventures with James Rendall 