FanPost

On Toxicity in the Club's Following

This calendar year has been a rollercoaster for fans of i Giallorossi. From the highest of highs in the spring as we booked a semi-final spot in the Champions League to the rollercoaster of the summer mercato to the current state of the club, it feels like Roma fans have been through just about every possible emotion this season. Let us submit that this is naturally a stressful time.

Roma fans come from all walks of life; all creeds; all ethnicities; all orientations; and all corners of the globe. We are Romans born and raised, Americans following along from across the ocean, and every degree in between. However, one key feature unites all of us: We follow Roma. Not a Prem team, not La Liga, and certainly not Juventus or Lazio, but Roma. Never-won-a-scudetto-since-2001 Roma. I think it's fair to say we aren't a lot of gloryhunters -- we all want what's best for this club and for whatever reasons, we all chose to throw our oars in with them.

This statement seems axiomatic: of course people on Chiesa di Totti, a Roma fansite, are followers of Roma! But it bears repeating. Throughout the summer and into the year, the Chiesa di Totti comments section has displayed some of the worst impulses of both Roma fans and of anonymous internet keyboard warriors. We are impatient and harsh with our judgements against our players and coaching staff, with memories shorter than that of a goldfish for their successes but long as an elephant's for their faults. It is September, and the team's less than ideal start is already considered in some quarters sufficient grounds for canning the whole lot of management in one fell swoop. While I think such an attitude is part of the problem surrounding our beloved Church, it is not the one I set out to combat today, nor is it necessarily inherently a bad thing. Such is our prerogative as fans.

What is not our prerogative as fans, however, is to turn our angst into backbiting and sniping at each other. Two factions have formed in the Roma fandom, as far as I can see. I will not seek to name and shame here, but on the one side there are the people who believe this season has been an unmitigated disaster so far, principally due to the actions of any combination of Monchi, Pallotta, and di Francesco. On the other, there are the people who believe that everything is just hunky-dory, that the regime needs time to work, and that we as fans ought to therefore refrain from commenting too harshly on management. For the sake of full disclosure, I fall somewhere in between: while I agree the project needs to take time and generally agree with Pallotta's vision of the club and Monchi's general philosophy of finding footballers, the current actions of management have drastically shortened their leash, and mean that they need to have a plan that starts showing results sooner or later, even if right now is too soon to be making judgements on the validity of that plan.

This factionalism has had numerous detrimental side effects. First, it leads to a truly breathtaking level of toxicity here. The Chiesa di Totti comment section resembles a war-zone rather than a like-minded gathering of fans. This is hardly conducive to good conversation: You'll notice that it always seems to be the same few people talking and talking, not necessarily adding anything to the conversation other than snipes at the other side. Second, and relatedly, this has the effect of pushing people away from the club. Taking examples from literally the last 48 hours, we have lost two posters in ertedesco and PatriotASR who, whatever the validity of their beliefs regarding management, frequently attempted to bring quality, nuanced discussion to the table. What benefit does this petty settling of scores serve anyone? Who wins when we all lose the opinions these posters bring to the table? What momentary benefit of "winning" over the other side in one debate on this website outweighs the possible deterrent factor to other posters (and there must be more who aren't as public about it as ertedesco or PatriotASR are), especially when we all know this debate is just going to happen over and over and over again? Why?

I don't care who's wrong. I don't care who's right; frankly, I don't think most people here do. Despite the examples I've used here, I don't intend to imply that one side is entirely in the wrong here and the other is entirely in the right. I think it's shameful that a minority of posters on this board turn this into a petty score-settling venue over issues that nobody here can change.

I'm not going to quit Roma or even this fansite: I'm not strong enough by half for that. But I see it as critical to call out toxicity when it arises in levels this strong, and to recommend a code of conduct be implemented to reign in some of this board's excesses. I don't pretend to have all the answers. But I do know this: It's critical for us as Roma fans to stick together, God knows everyone else does. I don't know much of anything else about this board, but I do know one thing:

Just stop killing each other.