Global Sport Stories

Now I’ve never been drawn to Milan. I’m not really a city man. And when there’s hot weather and no beach, I’d rather head somewhere else on my holidays. Besides, there has to be a reason why flights there are always so cheap.

However… when residing in a van and passing across northern Italy, it would’ve been rude not to check about potential fixtures taking place at the legendary San Siro – the ONLY feature enticing me to the city. And as it just so happens, in a drastic turn of events, I was off to Milan. Inter versus Udinese. 

For the sake of not being a complete Milan Scrooge, my girlfriend and I decided to make a day of it; helped by the vintage market in the region of Navigli. This was a compromise between the two of us, as I was convincing my girlfriend who had no prior interest in football to go to a game with me. 

Having established that our preconceptions of Milan were correct – there was nothing to do except spend money – I was beginning to feel feverishly febrile at the prospect of watching my first match of the season at ‘La Scala del Calcio.’ 

As a Coventry City fan I’ve been programmed to realise the best part of any match is before it kicks off (when you then usually start losing), but this feeling was intensified in our foreign settings. Everything was novel and a first. From spotting Nerazzuri shirts around town, to navigating Milan’s public transport to the stadium – excitement really grew throughout the day. 

We apparently hadn’t planned our public transport excursion well enough though, as we were left to take in the intricacies, that a football nerd like myself loves, in a hurried manor as kick off was fast approaching. This was no bad thing however, as once a top of the gigantic, swirling ramps taking you to the top tiers, we were greeted with men weeing in the gangways. This, for the record, is not the intricacies that a football nerd like myself loves. 

Leaving this grim site behind us, we paced out into the stands, to a soundtrack that I simply could not believe I was hearing. As mentioned previously, my girlfriend had no real interest in football, and having never been to a match before, I had asked her earlier in the day what her expectations were. Along with rowdy men, lots of swearing and the threat of being swilled, she answered lots of stamping feet and clapping hands – similar to Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You.’ I laughed and confidently exclaimed how she wouldn’t be seeing any of that…

Flash forward three hours and Molly’s first taste of live professional football was to be greeted by 75,000 Milanese stamping their feet and clapping their hands to tune of Queen’s We Will Rock You. I could not believe it. I was simply astounded. 

What’s more astounding is the fact that Molly’s other two predictions – the ones I thought were pretty spot on – didn’t really come true. Probably due to the fact we were up in the God’s in the cheaper seats, but there was a healthy picking of every demographic surrounding us, not just angry, swearing males. This I was glad of. 

As is often the case in these scenarios, the football almost takes a backseat. The match was entertaining; 2-1 to Udinese at half time. As a neutral, it meant I was left to simply soak up the atmosphere and not worry about the result – dare I say I even found quite a fondness for Udinese. Keinan Davis, once of Aston Villa and Watford, scored for the visitors, for any EFL fans out there.

Due to Milan’s tainted reputation for car security and the kick off time being at 8:45pm on a Sunday of all things, we sadly were only limited to that 45 minutes of action. Not that we missed anything, selfishly, I was quite relieved to learn the game concluded at 2-1 after the full 90 minutes. So it was a short trip, but definitely sweet. And I want to leave things with some quick fire reflections (yes from only 45 minutes watched).

English football atmosphere is better, both at Premier League and Football League level. The quality of Premier League football is noticeably higher. There is a stark difference in what fan behaviours are accepted in Italy. Away fans do travel in good numbers. The San Siro is huge. Everything surrounding a football match makes the match day, so much so sometimes the match doesn’t really matter. Football is a cultural experience and is well placed in our society to entertain and inform the masses. That is all. Forza Inter (and Udinese).