The Como stadium is a futuristic fascist architecture built on the lakeshore and dedicated to Giuseppe Sinigaglia, a rowing champion and hero of the First World War, who died in battle and was decorated for valour. When the stadium was named after him at its inauguration in the late 1920s, the racial laws were still far away. On 23 July 1944, on the other hand, the racial laws are unfortunately very much in force and the persecution at its height: this is the date on which the football match filmed in today's film, Como versus Lecco, valid for the final round for promotion to the Serie B championship of a split Italy, is played. The times are what they are. Just to give an idea near the stadium ticket office one can read the inscriptions 'Viva Hitler' and 'Viva Mussolini' (but by now with the Republic of Salò the latter is reduced to a shadow of the former). The players on the pitch make the ritual regime salute. In short, that's the climate and we'll never know what Sinigaglia would think. As La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote the next day: 'He could say one more word about the events of the finals, but this word was snatched from his mouth by the strong Lecco team that brought a very important success back to the stadium.' The guests won 2 to 1. However, the cameraman of this 8mm film, Ermanno Aebi, a former Internazionale footballer (which has been called Ambrosiana for some time now) is not here to film a historical document, but rather to film the actions of his son Giorgio, Como's star player and author of the home team's pointless goal. At the end of the game - and reel - we catch his glance towards the camera. The championship is gone, but it would be fair to say that in the Northern Italy of 1944 there was very little left to win, nothing probably.

Thanks to Nicola Sbetti