POLITICS has long been inseparable from football in Italy, ever since Mussolini’s fascist regime set out to harness the game’s capacity for unity to benefit his nationalist cause.

When people think of calcio (Italian football) and politics, they tend to think of the country’s famed Ultra culture and the violent right-wing extremists of Lazio. They remember their deeply offensive banners and recall Paulo Di Canio with his Roman salute.

But not all Italian football fans are right wing. The Tuscan port city of Livorno hosts one of the most left-wing clubs in the world. AS Livorno have had their moments of Serie A glory, but theirs have been in front of fans waving flags adorned with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, singing The Red Flag and the anthem of Italian anti-fascist resistance, Bella Ciao. The club is the very embodiment of leftist ideology in Italy.

Livorno was the birthplace of the Italian Communist Party in 1921, formed when Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led a split from the Italian Socialist Party. Livorno was a natural home for anti-nationalism.

As far back as the 1400s, the Medicis brought in progressive laws welcoming merchants of any nation to their newly constructed port. So began a unique multicultural city, where Jewish migrants lived alongside Turks, Moors, Armenians and Persians.

The football club was founded in 1915 and became a founder member of Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. In 1943 the Amarento, as they were known, due to their maroon shirts, were runners-up in the league, but have spent much of their history yo-yoing between the top three flights of calcio, winning Serie B twice, among six promotions back to the top flight.

For a second season in a row they finished 9th in Serie A in 2006, but due to punishments for match-fixing dealt to three teams above them – Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina – they found themselves promoted to sixth place, qualifying for the Uefa Cup for the first time.

Livorno’s political stance has often led to clashes with the right-wing ultras of other clubs. Fighting has been a feature of matches against Roma, Lazio, Inter, Milan and Hellas Verona.

Livorno has its own fanatics. In 1999, the ultra group Brigate Autonome Livornesi (BAL), was founded, bringing together disparate groups of fans under their skull and crossbones emblem.

On the terraces they celebrated the birthday of Stalin. And they declared: “The struggle of our lives is that of the working class, of anti-fascism and anti-capitalism, and so it will be in eternity.”

BAL goaded Milan fans and insulted Silvio Berlusconi in particular. They were not shy of violence, leading to banning orders far in excess of those issued elsewhere in Italy.

Their leader, the former boxer Lenny Bottai, was reported to have attacked a coachload of Sampdoria fans – on his own. Livorno’s curva nord (North Stand) bears a huge Che Guevara flag alongside anti-fascist symbols, Cuban flags and Russian slogans.

BAL became hate figures for the Italian right before their eventual dissolution in 2003 under the weight of the constant bans of their members.

At times there was widespread condemnation of their actions. When Livorno fans booed a tribute to Italian soldiers killed in a suicide bombing in Nasiriyah, Iraq, it was not to  celebrate the deaths, but to protest against Italian involvement in the Iraq war.

They chanted: “Give us ten, 100, 1,000 Nasiriyahs,” while the country was in mourning for their greatest loss of life since World War II.

It wasn’t in the best of taste, especially as five female Iraqi civilians also died in the blast. But when Berlusconi claimed the soldiers died “in the service of freedom and peace,” there was only so much hypocrisy a good Communist could take within the context of an unnecessary war, in a country in which peace remains elusive to this day.

You can’t talk of Livorno without speaking of their most famous son, Cristiano Lucarelli, former striker and avowed Communist. Often footballers are far removed from the politics and passions of the fans. Not so at Livorno.

Though raised in a Livorno housing project, Lucarelli played for a succession of other clubs as a young striker. But in 1997 he was picked for Italy’s under-21 side who were playing a friendly match against Moldova at Livorno’s Stadio Armando Picchi.

When, in the second half, Lucarelli scored, he pulled off his shirt to reveal a t-shirt bearing the face of Che Guevara. The Livorno fans went wild but he was effectively then blackballed from playing for the senior Italian team for many years.

Lucarelli’s career had its ups and downs after that before he got the chance to play for his dream club – AS Livorno – the team he would still go and see even when he was playing for other clubs. He took a huge pay cut in order to leave Torino, said to be a billion lire.

But Lucarelli shrugged it off, saying: “Some players buy themselves a Ferrari, or a yacht, with a billion lire. I bought myself a Livorno shirt, that’s all.”

Lucarelli demanded he be given the No. 99 shirt, to honour the year BAL was founded. Suddenly he was playing the football of his life, scoring 29 goals in his first season that ensured Livorno’s promotion to Serie A.

The following season he was the top scorer in the top flight, ahead of Shevchenko and Adriano, two of the world’s greatest strikers at the time.

After years of being frozen out, Lucarelli eventually played six times for Italy, scoring three times, late in his career.

Lucarelli became the left’s answer to Paulo Di Canio, who had foolishly given his own fans a fascist salute when playing against Livorno, despite the high tension between the two groups of ultras.

The name of Lucarelli has transcended football and his hometown because of what he stands for and indeed, what he stands against.

He is quoted as saying that Berlusconi “has hurt today’s Italy more than anyone else. To claim that an important goal against Berlusconi’s team doesn’t mean more than other goals would be as dumb as claiming football is only a sport.”

It may be a game, but it is also a place people express their passion for deeply held beliefs as well as athletic triumphs.

Livorno’s fans have formed a so-called “triangle of brotherhood” with fellow left-wing fan groups at Olympique de Marseille and AEK Athens. They have also forged connections with Celtic, a pact they call “United Against Fascism,” plus links with Adama Demirspor in Turkey and Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus.

Though the fortunes of the club may have dipped in recent years, bouncing between Serie B and Serie C, they remain true to their radical and revolutionary roots.

Despite the gaudy and vile contortions of Italy’s far-right supporters, the spirit of Livorno’s opposition will not be doused. They are as noisy and passionate as anyone.

They persist as a beacon of socialist humanity amid Italy’s brutal but messy politics. Forza Livorno!