Ball in the center for the championship that really belongs to everyone: on Sunday 27 September the D series starts again: 166 teams, from Bolzano to Marina di Ragusa, all 20 regions involved, 5 million and 714 thousand Italians interested, football in the capitals and of the province, of the towns and villages.
Everyone's football.
While Covid continues to keep the world in check and even stops the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, the most shining example of joy and gathering, Italian football returns to the field with all its leagues (including Serie C, after the withdrawal of the strike of the players) and the Amateurs leave with the enthusiasm of its many souls, from the decayed nobles to the teams of small villages.
"Starting over means being reborn, not only football but also being central in being able to make a contribution to rebirth to the country", the president of the National Amateur League told ANSA.
"We are very happy with the result, we hope that Covid will give us the opportunity to think about the past for what happened, and be positive and optimistic for the future".
The rebirth of the country after the stop for the coronavirus emergency therefore also starts from football.
And the D Series with its many facets is a cross-section of Italy.
The championship holds together cities of over 100,000 inhabitants such as Trento (group C) and Forlì (D) with small dots on the map without even a mayor, from Lentigione, a district of Brescello, to Mezzolara, a district of Budrio and Querceta, a district of Seravezza (all in the group D), or Trestina fraction of Città di Castello (E);
Dattilo, 600 inhabitants, hamlet of Paceco, in the province of Trapani (I);
Grassina, a hamlet of Bagno a Ripoli, and Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, a hamlet of Barberino.
A varied universe where there are also teams and cities that have known glory such as Vado (group A), winner of the first Italian Cup in 1922, and Casale, champion of Italy in 1914, or Savoia who played the championship final with Genoa in 1924. At the starting line a world champion, Alberto Gilardino on the bench of Siena and Beppe Incocciati (on the bench of Fiuggi) who shared the games with someone called Diego Armando Maradona.
In group H there is Lavello, a Lucanian team coached by Zdenek Zeman's son.
Lombardy has 23 teams and Valle d'Aosta 1. Messina is the largest city (236 thousand inhabitants) and in group I even a derby is allowed between ACR (Associations Calcio Riunite), heir to the team that was in Serie A in 2007, which has since gone bankrupt twice, and the FC (Football Club).
Then there are the teams of tiny villages: the smallest of all are the team of Badesse, a hamlet of 512 inhabitants in the municipality of Monteriggioni, province of Siena which burns by a few units Vastogirardi (F), province of Isernia with about 680 inhabitants .
In the universe of Serie D there are teams that express the city but also the neighborhoods, with Rome lining up in the same group (E) for the second city derby, the Trastevere and the Montespaccato, former Borgata Fogaccia, between via di Boccea and via di Boccea. Aurelia.
In addition there is Ostia.
Sassari, in the same group G as Torres, also has a second ward team, called Latte Dolce, a social housing district built on land donated by the Church. The name Cjarlins Muzane, a team that gathers in Friulian dialect (Group C), the communities of Carlino and Muzzana del Turgnano, founded just in 2003. Just as Pont Donnaz Hône Arnad and Evançon joined forces in Valle d'Aosta, or in the Alban Hills, Cynthia Genzano and Albalonga: after a long debating on the name to be given it was decided that the first team is called Cynthialbalonga and the youth teams Albacynthia.
They will play poetic football in San Mauro Pascoli (group D) and in Recanati (F), with Giampaolo's brother on the bench.
And there are teams whose names evoke the past like the Ambrosiana of group C which however has nothing to do with Meazza and Milan but is the team of Sant'Ambrogio (from Valpolicella), in Veneto, or those with names' exotic 'like La Nuova Florida (group G) which plays in Ardea, in Lazio.
Everything is ready for kickoff.
Nine races postponed after serological tests.
