The group “Tifo è amicizia” took its first steps in the end of the second division 1990/91 championship’ and made its official debut in September 1991. 

It is one of the former examples in the city of redblue football fans, being it the first traditional fans club, having its own statute, public access rules, elective organization  and a social site.

During these years its activity has been ceaseless, supporting its starting goals. This club has always been a meeting point for the Tarentinian football fans, so as to take part of  the show, on Sundays, the best way as possible.

Being the makers of an intense, non ideological, but passionate and conscious, way of supporting, the members did organize and still do, in the social site, every year, some meetings with the team members (players, trainers and technical directors) and several actors in the local football universe (tv and paper journalists, junior players and trainers, book writers and social operators).

Apart from these activities, the traditional side was not obviously missing (particularly the organization of the outside matches of our football team). In fact we can proudly say that, even in the fourth division, there was no football ground where any representant of our group was not. Rich is also the production of press bulletins, that our group used to hasten the public opinion about some more relevant arguments.

Several are the initiatives we performed, among which we remember a photo exhibition dedicated  to the local football fans, organized together with ”Gruppo Zuffa”at “Bar Cubana” (site of the association) and visited, while the team played the fourth division championship, by thousands of people (with public praises by the local media and “Supertifo”magazine), or, coming up to these days, to the party we made for the 10^th anniversary of the club foundation, named”Momenti Rossoblu” (RedblueMoments), with the presence of players and journalists of various eras, just to bear witness of the soccer fans culture that our group keeps pursuing (as the poet Thomas Eliot says, soccer is one of the main elements of the contemporary culture; we can also say it is memory, and such a great emotion bound to special moments in our life). 

Keeping to browse this book of memories, a great relevance does have the opening of the first website dedicated to Taranto football team and its supporters, which was born on February 1998, during plain anonimity for our football background, just to give evidence of and endless love for the redblue colours of our own. The site(born from the aggregation of some other fans groups), whose address was Planio.It/tarantosupporters and his management, brought to life the very first federative subject of non-ultras tarentinian soccer fans, namely the “TarantoSupporters” association, which our group is among the former members of. However, our group decided to leave the association, thinking there were no more the conditions for a profitable contribution, in June2001, even still appreciating the efforts of people still working for it.

Most part of the club members (over 250 membership cards last year) watches the match from the balcony (upper section) of  the stadium, where its banner is aloof since 1991; however, during all these years, the group’s lineup has remained transverse, to give more evidence of the “singular” temper that has always marked our own group: Apart from the necessary sharing of certain principles (such as denial of any kind of violence and no association with Taranto football society) the club is open to any kind of “contamination” and, most of all, as free as many of our campaigns, some of which we were sole to bring up: We remember, for example, the discharge request for former General Manager Mario Jacobucci (who withdrew from his office after a bulletin by our club); and the fight against Giancarlo Cito (former Mayor of Taranto town) and his overwhelming power. This was done without falling into temptation of insulting, but by the use of  criticism.

The enlistment in the club gives you the opportunity to take part to each of the activities, such as the participation to our team’s outside matches, at favourable conditions and prices (only for our members, and some friends of theirs, using deluxe coaches), the purchase of the “Tifo è amicizia” endorsed material (t-shirts, scarves and other trivia) and, by the way, the presence in various local TV shows and public exhibitions. This behaviour, far from being a kind of self-celebration, should give everyone the chance to give his opinion in front of a larger audience, also-and most of all-having the deepest consciousness of  the fact that

“Il TARANTO siamo-anche-NOI”

“WE  TOO are IL  TARANTO”

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