Solidarity race for Athletic Brighela, the football team fined for a banner against deaths at sea

A “sad quarter of an hour of fame”: this is how the surrealist defines his storyAthletic Brighela, company of third Bergamo category who was fined for expressing solidarity with the migrants who lost their lives in the Cutro massacre.

The amateur society, characterized by a great civil commitment and by a «more sustainable, supportive and inclusive management modeladministration and involvement of athletes and supporters” – as told in a press release the day after the incident – had taken the field to play the eighteenth day of group B against River Negrone (who, for the record, beat the Brighela 5 to 1). But here we are not talking about sport, or at least not only. The Brighela players, before the kick-off, shoot out a banner and show it to the audience.

“Mediterranean Cemetery. No more dead at sea”, was the message written on that sheet. A universally shareable message which, if desired, anticipated the minute’s silence arranged by the FIGC-LND for the matches of all the championships scheduled for the weekend. However, the referee did not think so, who did not want to take the content into consideration, stopping at the form: that “political” banner had not been authorised, and therefore in the field there could not be. As can be read from the official documents of the match, before the match, «the captain of the Asd Athletic Brighela company, Peter Rota, asked the match director to be authorized to introduce and display a banner on the pitch, which according to him had no political content. On the other hand, the tender official did not authorize the request». Instead, the Brighela go their own way, as they probably would have done the mask of the Bergamo carnival of which they bear the name.

The result of that demonstrative action is punished with 550 euro fine and one month disqualification for the team captain and coach. Thus, Athletic Brighela returned home defeated, but not resigned, also thanks to the many messages of solidarity received in the meantime. The fans, and not only them, have offered to pay the fine for the team, e demonstrations of support have arrived from all over Italy.

“What happened surprised us, inevitably. But it wasn’t the first time we shared humanitarian messages. We had already taken the field exactly one year ago against the war in Ukraine and against all the wars going on in the world. No fines. No referrals. No disqualification,” the team commented in a press release shared on social media the day after the incident. «Today we find ourselves commenting on a measure that is borderline. But none of us consider ourselves victims of this. The victims are at the bottom of the sea: over 26,000 in the last 10 years. Well, we wanted to emphasize this and we claim it. We don’t feel guilty at all. Did the fine arrive and did the disqualifications arrive? We will pay.”

On the contrary: Brighela does not stop and decides to channel all the proposals for economic aid received in a charity initiative: starting next week, the team says, the coordinates for participating in a crowdfunding campaign in support of an NGO will be published on social media channels. After all, if you think about it, that severe punishment wasn’t such a bad thing, if it turned into the engine of a beautiful chain of solidarity. Proof that on a football field, sometimes, it’s not just sport that wins.