Naples April 23 (BNA): Before Gaetano Manfredi was elected Mayor of Naples in 2021, he was a university professor specializing in seismic engineering – preparing and designing buildings to resist earthquakes.
When Manfredi rose to become Chancellor of the University of Naples Federico II, a study was carried out to measure the effect of fans celebrating goals scored by Napoli F.C. inside what is now known as the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
“The engineering department building is near the stadium and there is a seismograph there, and whenever Napoli scores a goal it will register enough shaking to almost register as an earthquake,” Manfredi told the Associated Press in a recent interview.
So how big would a university seismograph record when Napoli won their first Serie A title in over three decades? With a 17-point lead and seven games to go, comes the first chance to win this weekend – the Labor Day (Labour Day in Europe) long weekend.
Napoli’s support is considered akin to religion in the southern city, and the team has not won Serie A since Diego Maradona led the club to only two Italian championships in 1987 and 1990.
“The passion for football in Napoli is one of the biggest in the world,” said Manfredi.
It’s pretty cool that Neapolitans brushed off their superstitions about celebrating—or even mentioning—the word “scudetto,” or title, before it happened and decked out the city with banners, banners, flags, and cardboard mockups of Neapolitan players—all in Neapolitan blue.
The moniker could also be a social lift for Napoli, a city that has struggled with rubbish removal and crime and is seen as a poor cousin to the south of traditional northern footballing capitals Milan and Turin.
Each neighborhood of the city, from the steep and narrow alleyways of the distinctive Quartieri Spagnoli to the more modern Fuorigrotta district where the stadium is located, has its own style of celebration.
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