The investigation into the ultras case continues and continues, with some news coming directly from Milan. Yesterday, Davide CalabriaAC Milan captain, was questioned as a witness as part of an investigation conducted by the Flying Squad, coordinated by prosecutors Paolo Storari and Sara Ombra, regarding the San Siro curves. This operation has led to 19 arrests in recent weeks, dealing a serious blow to the top brass of both Milan and Inter’s ultras organisations.
Calabria was summoned to clarify a meeting that took place in February 2023 in a bar in Cologno Monzese with Luca Lucci, head of the Rossoneri ultras, currently in prison. During the interrogation, the defender stated that Lucci contacted him to discuss “the problems of the team, the locker room and performance”, thus confirming the nature of the meeting, which has already been documented by the investigators.
The press release from Milan’s Curva Sud.
“We waited a few days before writing hasty words because we inevitably needed time to metabolize what happened last week. We want to start immediately with a dutiful and sacrosanct premise: WE are the Curva Sud Milano. WE are the ULTRAS of Milan. WE are those who will fight to the death for our Milan. WE are the ones who are always there, however and everywhere. And we will still be there, AS ALWAYS at our expense, without gifts from anyone.
WE are always next to each other. WE are the ones who have suffered every type of repression and have always held firm. WE are the ones who have Milan in their hearts and only want the good of our colours. WE have been this for 16 years, starting from the darkest years after the dissolution of the historical groups we rose from the lowest point to shine again like the brightest stars, years in which we got up again thanks above all to those guys that everyone knows, those boys splashed on the front page of the newspapers, those boys who have always been in the front row on every occasion, those boys who have already paid a high price for many of the episodes that are being contested against them today, those boys who put the Curva Sud and the love for Milan always comes first in every step and in every decision, contrary to what they want you to believe.
We sang with these kids, we suffered and rejoiced with them, we admired with emotion and pride the dozens of choreographies created in recent years (all self-financed), we cheered with them, we fought alongside them, they defended you when they attacked you , we were next to these guys when everything was most difficult and when Milan needed US the most. WE with them are the ones who have dragged an entire stadium to sing for the Rossoneri, WE with them are the ones who throughout Italy and throughout Europe have made Milan feel as if they were playing at home and all this must be attributed to those who, 16 years old ago, firmly believed in the dream of wanting the Curva Sud UNITA without any more divisions, in the project that would lead to a peaceful coexistence involving all the Rossoneri fans, ULTRAS, CLUB and people who frequented the stadium independently, leading the Rossoneri fans to be among the most admired, loved and respected in Europe.
This is what matters to US, this is what we must also and above all recognize in these kids, and this is all that someone wants you to forget: now is the time to be even more united and compact, now is the time to tighten our ties teeth and to resist together as we have always done, to move forward together, because they want us divided, one against the other, but they know well that in all these years we have given life to a second family that has welcomed thousands of children and has taken by the hand to travel kilometers around Europe alongside the devil.
This curve has always shown us and has always fought for the good of everyone, as at the beginning of the 2022 championship when we found the stadium bars selling beer with a mark-up of 60% more than at the end of the previous season , trying to find an AGREEMENT that would satisfy everyone (a situation well known to ALL professionals). Or like when we tried to put a stop to the embarrassing growth in ticket prices (think of the protest over the AC Milan-Atletico Madrid price list for the season 2021-2022 then hastily corrected), or to the battle to put a ceiling on the price of the host sectors as now happens throughout Europe, including cups as per UEFA directives which this year has further lowered the maximum price.
The events involving the two Milan Curves are profoundly different: an attempt was made to convey the idea that the non-belligerence pact between the Curves was used as a means to make money, unfortunately it is a historic agreement signed after the World Cup in 1983 to avoid having a continuous “war” in the city, everywhere, at any time of the week between AC Milan fans and Inter fans. And for over 40 years this “pact” has been carried out by anyone who has managed the two curves over time, in an intelligent and responsible manner, unlike what we would like to believe for the sole purpose of speculation, profit or personal gain. There is nothing further from the truth, it is an offense to history and to those who agreed to this pact and to those who, after 40 years, still respect it and consider it unique in the world panorama of fans, making the Milan derby one of the quietest games of the year.
We have NEVER managed car parks, we have NEVER managed stalls, we have NEVER managed bars, we have NEVER received and above all demanded tickets from the company, we have NEVER managed things outside the ULTRAS world, we have NEVER carried out acts of intimidation or violence to grab profits deriving from activities tangential to the stadium environment. We have NEVER acted as touts but we have simply allowed ourselves, in some circumstances, to differentiate prices between those who have always been there and those who have frequented less assiduously, always in the interests of the former and never for personal gain.
Every income was used to self-finance the creation of choreographies (just count them from the photos on our website: 12 in the 2021-2022 season, 11 in the 2022/2023 season and 7 in the one just ended, just to name a few), in the numerous charitable activities always documented over the years, in the legal protection for incidents linked to the stadium, in the allocation of substantial contributions for away games to financially help all those people who dedicate themselves body and soul to the curve and the passion for Milan (thanks God there are many) and who cannot afford to always go to the stadium given the crazy prices and given that every three days a home or away match is played (two years ago, for example, the away match in Naples was given away to all the members) but more generally in every match where dozens of people from ALL GROUPS of the Curva receive a contribution to reduce their expenses.
And the question of the cash fund has always been valid, since the 70s with the birth of the historic groups, without forgetting that when Curva Sud Milano was born we experienced the most disastrous years at football level of the last forty years, from the descending parable of the it was Berlusconi, at the advent of the Chinese up to the American management, years in which certainly, with the exception of the championship season and the following one, despite not having large revenues, WE always contributed to subsidizing the kids of all the groups of the Curva, sometimes even out of our own pocket. And if nowadays every year all our members renew their subscription with US in Curva Sud, if many from other sectors want to move to 2°BLU, if there are the queues to come and cheer with US, if despite a team and a club that are not writing memorable pages in the history of our club, the only sold-out sector is always ours, if people respect us and love us There must be a reason (or maybe more than one!).
We are witnessing a shameful media campaign by newspapers and TV that tend to make “soups”, shaming young people for the sole purpose of gaining an audience, whose only fault is that of having established working relationships and friendships with more or less famous people. This mass attack will in no way allow you to undermine the good done by these people, such as the many charity initiatives organized primarily by them in the name of the curve, every time there was a need to do good (flood in Emilia-Romagna and charity collections for Palestine and the homeless in Milan, the latest in a long series). We regularly (and shamelessly) see these people disgraced in every article or in every broadcast, as if organizing events with famous singers or opening businesses in a completely REGULAR manner were a crime.
The answer to whether or not today it is appropriate to continue under the name of CURVA SUD MILANO is more than ever a YES, a strong and convinced response from all the groups that today constitute this Curva and who have contributed with the thousands of young people who they attend, to make it the show within the show, the real attraction for all those people who have the misfortune of not attending it but the great fortune of seeing it from the other sectors of the stadium.
We do not deny anything of what we have done in recent years, indeed we claim it with pride. To the corners frequented by mythomaniacs without dignity and to all those evil tongues who have already set themselves up as champions of the ultras world, writing various sentences and rubbish on banners relating to this affair, we want to remind you that a person is innocent up to the third degree of judgement, and that there is no worse villain than someone who enjoys the misadventures of others, above all without knowing the reality of the facts and without waiting for justice to take its course.
We have ALL always paid for personal vicissitudes and at a high price, and even though we are aware that in the future some of US could be affected by new measures, this does not mean that a person cannot get back into the game and start a new life once they have paid for all this what you have to pay. Targeting the most exposed figures of our group in the media for their private affairs with the sole aim of trying to destroy them will not allow you to throw further mud on a reality which over the years has been a point of reference for thousands of people, above all thanks to them . Finally, we would like to thank the numerous Rossoneri fans, the Milan club kids and all the people who have shown us affection and solidarity, because the management of the Curva has always been there for all to see; we have never been saints, but we have certainly recreated one of the most beautiful aggregative realities of our city, and perhaps this could represent a setback for some…
FORWARD SOUTH CURVE, FORWARD ROSSONERI!
ALWAYS TOGETHER and ALWAYS WITH MILAN IN MY HEART!”.