Tifosi

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Tifosi of the Italy national football team during the UEFA Euro 2000

Tifosi (pronounced [tiˈfoːzi; -oːsi]) is a group of supporters of a sports team, especially those that make up a tifo.

Etymology

The word Tifosi comes from Ancient Greek "typhos" (τῦφος), meaning smoke, as it was customary for spectators of the Ancient Olympic Games to celebrate the victories of their favourite athletes by reuniting around a bonfire.[1][2][3] The plural Tifosi is used for a mixed gender or an all-male group; masculine singular is tifoso, feminine singular tifosa, feminine plural tifose.

Football

The word is mainly used to describe fans of clubs in

football. Apart from the many local fan clubs in Italy, whose main role is, for example, to provide a meeting place for fans and friends and organize away trips, since the late 1960s, many Italian fans rely on organized stadium groups known as ultras. The main goal is to choreograph fan support with flags, banners, coloured smoke screens, flares, drums, and chanting in unison. For most teams city rivalries, colours, coat of arms, symbols, and the overall iconography have roots in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance
.

A fictional depiction of a tifoso in football is shown in Tifosi, an Italian film released in 1999.[4]

Formula One

The tifosi at the 2003 Italian Grand Prix, Monza

It has become common to use the word "tifosi" to refer to the supporters of

Lancia, and Alfa Romeo
.

The tifosi provide Formula One with a sea of red filling the grandstands at the

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari near the town of Imola, 80 km (49.7 mi) east of the Ferrari factory in Maranello
.

The tifosi in Italy have been known to actually cheer for a non-Italian driver in a Ferrari passing an Italian driver in another make of car.[6] At the 1983 San Marino Grand Prix, the crowd at Imola cheered long and loud when Italian Riccardo Patrese crashed his Brabham out of the lead of the race only 6 laps from home, handing Frenchman Patrick Tambay the win in his Ferrari. Patrese himself had only passed Tambay for the lead half a lap earlier.

One driver who never actually drove for Ferrari but is supported by the tifosi is Frenchman

Honda of Ayrton Senna, fittingly handing Ferrari's Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto an emotional 1–2 Italian Grand Prix result only a month after the death of Enzo Ferrari. Berger's win handed McLaren their only loss of the 16-race 1988 season.[7]

The tifosi stuck by Ferrari during the struggles in the early 1990s, where

2006 season, leading the team to six Constructors' Championship
from 1999–2004 and personally winning five drivers' championships.

When Ferrari's Charles Leclerc won at Monza 2019, which was the first time for the team since 2010, a massive crowd of tifosi went to the podium to celebrate the victory. As revealed by David Croft during the podium celebration, there is a strained relationship between the tifosi and Mercedes, who have won in Monza from the start of the turbo hybrid era in 2014 to 2018. Whenever a Mercedes won the Italian GP, or made the podium, the tifosi would boo at the driver.

Cycling

The word is commonly used to describe fans along the roadside at professional road cycling races in Italy such as Tirreno–Adriatico, Milan–San Remo, the Giro d'Italia, and the Giro di Lombardia.

Passionate supporters of Italian cycling teams and cyclists are called "the tifosi".

See also

References

  1. ^ "TIFO".
  2. ^ "Tifo in Vocabolario - Treccani".
  3. ^ "Etimologia : Tifo".
  4. ^ Milano-Firenze, Mo-Net s r l. "Tifosi (1999)". mymovies.it.
  5. ^ "Leclerc calls on Tifosi to help Ferrari gatecrash title scrap - France 24". 9 September 2021.
  6. ^ "Ferrari's passionate tifosi facing a miserable afternoon at Monza". 3 September 2020.
  7. ^ Andrew Benson (8 September 2009). "Your classic Italian Grand Prix - Andrew Benson's blog". BBC. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  8. ^ Moxon, Daniel (11 June 2022). "Beloved Ferrari icon won just one race before being ousted by Michael Schumacher". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
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