Readers of a certain vintage might recall 2,4,6,8 Motorway by the Tom Robinson Band way back in 1977! The title of this article almost fits perfectly with the tune and constitutes the last four seasons in the Brindisi Calcio story. Indeed, this term, we could add another D as they bounced straight back out of the Puglia Eccellenza.
It’s been a giddy ride if you are a Brindisi fan. In 2022/23, the first of the D above, they clawed an impossible gap back on Cavese to end up level on points with them. That forced a playoff, which they duly won. Football is a funny old game at times. Reaching for the professional ranks is great, but if the stadium isn’t ready, it causes issues. They started the next season having to play on the road, and then the expenditure of upgrading left the salary pot lacking, and by the end of term, they were back down, points deducted for late salary payments etc.
Ironically, as they slipped back, they crossed with Cavese, who made sure of automatic promotion this time. They have more than held their own in Serie C since, while Brindisi have continued on a journey.
Back in Serie D, slapped with a significant points deduction, they fought well and hard to get out of the pickle. In the end, an astonishing number of late conceded goals for a number of 2-2 draws meant the possibility of a relegation playout was agonisingly just out of reach. In all Italian leagues, except Serie A, they have a relegation playout or two, where a lower placed team can still survive if they beat the slightly higher side over two legs. The caveat to these games going ahead, the points gap needs to be less than 8. In Brindisi’s case, it was 10, and down they went.
Last season saw the Puglian Eccellenza festooned with a trio of traditional clubs, with Taranto and Bisceglie joining them there. For Bisceglie, it was the third run at trying to get free of regional football, and these two juggernauts could have destabilised that dream.
As it was, all three could have gone up, despite only one automatic promotion slot, and that accolade went to Brindisi. They had bottomed out and bounced straight back. Bisceglie would join them courtesy of a lengthy road to the Coppa Dilettanti Final, covered previously in FW, when I witnessed their second success in this competition, winning 1-0 at Teramo, versus Montecchio. Taranto, the second city of Puglia, won the regional play-offs to enter a couple ties with other southern regional sides en route to claiming a place back in D. Apice were seen off, and a draw in the final away to Gladiator in Santa Maria Capua Venere set them up for the final showdown.
Taranto was hosting the Mediterranean Games in the summer of ’26,’ and by virtue, while getting a new stadium, they had been on the road for two years, playing at nearby Massafra. It’s not the biggest stadium, but it was crammed full for this one. In a very tight game, extra time was looming when a 95th minute added time corner for Gladiator was headed home. Literally a sword to the heart of Taranto. They were staying down, and the crazy Ultras associated with the club didn’t care for that, going on the rampage. When the dust settled and appeals were adjudicated, they couldn’t open their exquisite new stadium until October, fined heavily, and deducted 2 points. Things haven’t started great for them this season, either.
Brindisi was also involved in the Mediterranean Games, and funding became available to get the stadium a new Curva (which looks like the old one in truth), and a new Gradinata (also very similar, but better seats, and a roof). Aside from the pitch at the Fanuzzi, which still hasn’t completely recovered from a match played in atrocious conditions two years ago that ripped up almost every blade of grass, it’s now a fine venue. The pitch situation is odd, with an area to the right of the centre line, towards the main stand still visibly scarred, running almost the length of the field. It doesn’t make for easy passing in that area.
Last autumn, I stayed in Brindisi for a month, using it as both a home and a base to travel elsewhere. I loved every minute of my time here. This autumn, I decided on using Bari, even more just as a base to reach more Northern Puglia locations. Well, at times, the weather didn’t allow for much else. However, the lure of Brindisi pulled me back to visit the city. I was delighted upon arrival at a restaurant I had frequented down by the water a lot last year, that one of the waiters recognised me.
In truth, the curtain call on this month long sojourn was meant to be Campobasso, a place I will yet bring to a wider audience. However, a combination of things was messing with my head. The weather was forecast to be awful, plus it was a five hour trip via Termoli, where a train becomes a bus, with a lengthy wait. The real killer, though, was a 14.15 bus back to Termoli the next day was the first one! That meant an 8pm arrival in Bari, with an 8am departure to Roma for heading home the next morning. Assuming everything went smoothly, and on this trip, transportation has been an issue, so I decided to abort.
The weekend prior, I watched Brindisi end my streak of never seeing Bisceglie lose. But it struck me that here in my 6th Brindisi match, I had watched them score for the first ever time. My four previous matches at the Fanuzzi in Brindisi had all served up home blanks. That stat nawed away, and coupled with the weather and potential travel issues, I was back in Brindisi once more.
It is nice going back to places of familiarity, at least for me. Having done the city re-visitation a couple of days earlier, I merely timed my arrival here to stride the 30-minute walk to the Casale area of the city where the stadium is housed. I hadn’t even bothered getting a ticket online as unusually they sell tickets right until kick off. What a novelty! Remember those days!
It was nice being back here, and knowing the club are building something significant, this could be yet another promotion season for them. Should they get back to Serie C, I think they will be better prepared this time around.
Given this was the first day of November, it was both bewildering and completely understated, but a bloke came out onto the pitch with a trophy and handed it to Wurzel Gummidge, or some very similar in appearance. It transpires that this exceedingly frail and white-haired chap is the Brindisi chairman, and he was being presented with the trophy for the club winning last season’s Eccellenza.
Brindisi were also debuting a new kit. A throwback to their first colours, apparently, a distance from the club colours now of blue and white. This was maroon and white number, still with the classic ‘V’ on the front, like Brescia, but not a diamond like Airdrieonians. Indeed, it was a shirt akin to where Hearts meets Airdrie if you will. It was certainly an interesting kit.
In town were Ebolitana from Campania, just southeast of Salerno. They are a club similarly just up into D this term. Carlos Levi wrote a very famous book, ‘Christ Stopped at Eboli’, more a tale of being exiled away from fascism rather than anything inordinately religious. Francesco Rosi then turned it into a fine movie in 1979. It certainly put Eboli on the map.
The twenty of so Ebolese were in good voice, sporting two Scottish Saltires to go with the club colours. The home support, bouyed by four wins on the bounce, two at tricky venues at Nocera Inferiore and Bisceglie, were here in good numbers, and the passionate Curva Sud drowned out the Eboli contingent easily.
Ebolitana should have taken the lead. A cracking half volley from the edge of the box was bang on target, only to be thwarted by a stunning save. It would be the closest they came. Brindisi, who were playing with less intensity than at Bisceglie, started to dominate. They won a series of corners, but they insisted on playing it short, with none of the first 4 even getting a cross away.
Doubtlessly, the manager was frustrated by that, as it was obviously a training ground ploy. However, corner number five was just swung in, met with a solid header, Brindisi led, and finally, I had seen them score at home. They were getting a whiff of this now, and another corner midway through the second half maybe wasn’t such a great finish, but the keeper couldn’t keep it out, and Brindisi were home and hosed. The icing was nearly applied when an alert Brindisi midfielder intercepted a bad Eboli pass, and while still in his own half, looked up, saw the keeper way off his line, and his terrific effort was the right accuracy, just a fraction too high as it sailed over by no more than inch.
Unity is in the air at Brindisi again. That winning feeling from last season continues, and they might just be on course to follow Barletta’s lead, a club from further north in the region, and do the double promotion. Life is rarely dull for the Brindisi fans.
Perhaps they should open the gates a little more than 30 minutes before kick off, though. There is nothing more hilarious than listening to the stadium announcer playing music and welcoming people to the Fanuzzi when the gates are still locked! I was keen to buy a Brindisi shirt and contacted the club to find out where. To my surprise, they replied and gave me the address of a copyshop doubling up as their new store. I nipped along on Thursday and found it was still a work in progress. However, the girl was very helpful and said she would message me to collect a shirt on Sunday as they were allegedly arriving that night. She did message, but to say, the stock that had arrived didn’t include football shirts.
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani made a brilliant movie in the mid ’80’s called Kaos. In a portion of this lengthy visual feast of a film, a chap is entrusted with fixing a large urn in the village square for the forthcoming wine festival. He duly did the necessary, but inadvertently did it from the inside, and found he was stuck inside! The metaphor is still relevant today with not just these incidents but many other more serious issues encountered along the way on this trip and previous ones. It is perhaps even poignant in Italy now. My great friend Francesco in Bisceglie captured the essence of things here in a nutshell, suggesting Italy was no longer a country, more a film production!
Thankfully, I love cinema almost as much as I love both Italy and calcio, so despite everything, I will keep coming back.
