Nowadays, it is hard to believe that the Roma and Napoli supporters once used to be friends. In the last 40 years, the relationship between the two clubs’ fan bases has been tense, to say the least.

Indeed, the Derby del Sole is now considered a match at risk of clashes between the two supporter groups, whose encounters have at times had a tragic outcome.

That was not the case in the 1970s and early 1980s, though. Back in those days, the Giallorossi and the Partenopei fan bases were linked by an official gemellaggio, a “twinning” between their main ultra groups — one so strong that it was re-cemented every time the two sides met via a solemn flag-exchange ritual.

Before each game played in Rome, a representative from each fan base holding a club flag would meet on the midfield circle of the Stadio Olimpico. The two would greet each other, then proceed together to salute each curva before ceremoniously exchanging their flags.

It was a pretty big deal.

Until something happened.

The twinning between the Giallorossi and the Azzurri fans was officially declared broken on October 25, 1987, at the end of a Serie A game between the two sides that ended 1-1. Napoli managed to cancel Roma’s lead despite playing with two men fewer due to Careca and Alessandro Renica’s expulsions.

The reason for the break has been traditionally attributed to Napoli player Salvatore Bagni celebrating his team’s equalizer by addressing the Roma fans with the infamous “umbrella gesture,” the Italian equivalent of giving someone the finger…

However, things are more complex than that. Bagni’s behavior – for which he repeatedly apologized – might have been the last straw, but the once-peaceful relationship between the Roma and Napoli ultras had been progressively deteriorating ahead of that day’s confrontation. Things spiraled out of control even before kick-off.

But before we get to that – how had the two clubs’ fan bases come to be friends in the first place?

Towards the end of the 1970s, there seemed to be a natural liking between the Napoli and Roma fans. After all, their teams were the only ones potentially capable of breaking the Serie A domination of the more powerful, richer clubs based in the north of Italy – Juventus, Inter, Milan.

Roma had managed to do so by winning the title in the 1982/83 season. Napoli were not yet a match for them, and their supporters used to genuinely look up to the Giallorossi and their ultra groups – who were the undisputed trendsetters in the world of Italy’s supporter groups. It wasn’t unusual to see small groups of Roma fans join their Napoli friends on the stands of the San Paolo when the Partenopei faced Lazio – Roma’s bitter enemies.

Things started to change as Napoli grew in the second half of the 1980s. Diego Maradona’s arrival, together with many other expensive transfer deals, slowly turned the underdog Partenopei into a force to be reckoned with.

The Neapolitans started to no longer be some funny, younger brothers to the Romans. They were now true adversaries and contenders for the Scudetto as much as they. Indeed, Napoli were the Serie A defending champions on the day the twinning was broken, having won the 1986/87 edition of the league.

However, what really put a strain on the relationship was Napoli’s purchase of striker Bruno Giordano in 1985. Giordano was a Lazio veteran of ten years and had been a Biancocelesti fan since childhood. The Roma ultras could not accept that. Chants against Giordano started to be heard every time Roma faced Napoli, to which some Neapolitan fans replied by offering the same treatment to the Giallorossi captain Bruno Conti.

On October 25, 1987, the friendship came to an end. It happened during the traditional flag-exchange ceremony, in such a way that makes one believe that breaking the twinning was a deliberate choice on the part of the Roma fan base – at least, of a portion of them.

The two flag bearers met as usual in the middle of the pitch, then moved towards the north stands, where the Napoli fans stood, and were greeted by the Partenopei with some joyous “Roma! Roma!” chants.

They then moved to the south stands, the home of the Roma fans, where the flag-exchange ritual was expected to take place. The Napoli ambassador offered his flag, but the Roma boy theatrically spurned it as the Giallorossi supporters showered the Azzurro with whistles and threw plastic bottles at him.

It was clearly a setup, and likely the tipping point of an underlying tension that had grown over the past few years. The events on the pitch only added fuel to the fire, as that day’s match between Roma and Napoli ended up being brutal, with seven bookings and two send-offs.

Roma took the lead right after the restart as their cannoniere Roberto Pruzzo headed the ball home from a Bruno Conti corner kick.

On 50 minutes, Napoli’s Brazilian star Careca lost it after a foul by Fulvio Collovati and headbutted the Romanista right under the referee’s eyes. The consequence could only be an early shower for Napoli’s number seven.

Nine minutes later, Renica had to pull Zbigniew Boniek by the shirt (Giorgio Chiellini-style…) to stop a fast break. But he had already been booked, and so Napoli were reduced to nine men.

Only three minutes later, though, Maradona took a corner kick from the left and picked defender Giovanni Francini in the middle of the box. Francini’s lobbed header went high and high, past goalkeeper Franco Tancredi, to give Napoli an unhoped-for equalizer.

Roma’s final assault was relentless, but the Partenopei’s wall held. At full time, the tension exploded; there were some scuffles between the players and, while parading under Roma’s south stands, Bagni came up with the gesture that made him go down in history – perhaps undeservingly – as the man who broke the Roma-Napoli twinning.

There’s more to it, though, as we saw. The friendship between the Giallorossi and the Azzurri supporters used to be one of the most beautiful, surprising things in the complex world of Italian football supporter groups. The breaking was due to a mixture of growing tensions, misunderstandings, and even divisions within each club’s fan bases.

The relationship has never recovered to date. As often happens in football, things are easier destroyed than built.

MATCH SCORECARD

October 25, 1987 – Serie A 1987/88 Round 6
ROMA – NAPOLI 1-1

SCORERS: 46′ Pruzzo (R), 67′ Francini (N)

	ROMA: Tancredi, Tempestilli, Oddi, Manfredonia, Collovati, Signorini, Conti, Domini, Pruzzo, Giannini, Boniek (Peruzzi, Righetti, Gerolin, Desideri, Agostini) Coach: Liedholm / Sormani
	NAPOLI: Garella, Ferrara, Francini, Bagni, Ferrario, Renica, Careca, De Napoli, Giordano (77′ Bruscolotti), Maradona (90′ Filardi), Romano (Di Fusco, Sola, Carnevale) Coach: Bianchi

REFEREE: Mr. Magni from Bergamo
NOTES: Red Cards: Careca, Renica (N)