Volata ("flow") is a code of football developed and promoted by Italian fascists for a brief period during the late 1920s and early 1930s, in an attempt to displace sports with non-Italian origins, such as

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

(soccer) and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

. Association football was popular in Italy when the fascists came to power in 1921.

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

was a new and relatively minor sport, but also growing in popularity. Although the fascists idealized association football for its contribution to physical fitness, it was also seen at the time as an "English game" (because the rules had been codified by the English

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

and the first organized matches had taken place in England). The fascists generally distanced themselves from cultural practices with foreign roots. Conversely, rugby was seen as a modern interpretation of the extinct Ancient Roman game of ''

harpastum , also known as , was a form of ball game played in the Roman Empire. The Romans also referred to it as the small ball game. The ball used was small (not as large as a , , or football-sized ball) and hard, probably about the size and solidity of ...

''. By 1927, fascist propaganda actively promoted rugby, which it referred to as ''palla ovale'' ("oval ball"). However, the ''

Federazione Italiana Rugby The Italian Rugby Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Rugby) or FIR is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy. The FIR has one seat on the 28-member World Rugby Council, the governing body of World Rugby. (All other members of ...

'' proved resistant to manipulation and the fascists quickly ceased their support. The national secretary of the Fascist Party,

Augusto Turati Augusto Turati (16 April 1888 – 27 August 1955) was an Italian journalist and Fascist politician. Born in Parma, after moving to Brescia as a young man, Turati worked on newspapers and became one of the editors at the liberal ''Provincia ...

, devised volata. Officially, the rules were based on long-extinct codes of football indigenous to Italy, especially the Roman

and the medieval ''

calcio Fiorentino ''Calcio Fiorentino'' (also known as ''calcio storico'' "historic football") is an early form of football ( soccer and rugby) that originated during the Middle Ages in Italy. Once widely played, the sport is thought to have started in the ''Pi ...

''. Volata was contested by eight-member sides, with rules that were described by a 1929 propaganda newsreel from '' Istituto Luce'' as a "synthesis of the essential elements of the games of ''calcio'' and rugby" (''sintesi di elementi essenziali del giuoco del calcio e del "rugby"'').''Istituto Luce'', 1929, ''Partita di "volata" allo stadio del P.N.F. di Roma''
(1 September 2016). Use of the word "''calcio''" was ambiguous, as it was the usual name of association football, as well as ''calcio Fiorentino'', which in 1930 was also revived at the fascists' behest. Promoted by Fascist sporting and cultural organizations, Volata enjoyed a brief phase of popularity. More than 100 Volata clubs and a league were reportedly formed. However, the enduring popularity of association football caused the fascists to change their attitude toward the sport. In 1933, volata organizations and competitions were officially abandoned. Afterwards the fascists encouraged association football; Italy hosted and won the 1934 World Cup. The popularity of rugby and its place within Italian sporting culture appear to have been reduced by the changing policies of the fascists, as well as the invention of volata. Nevertheless, rugby survived the fascist period and began to grow when Italy was occupied by British Commonwealth forces during 1943–47.

References

* ''Making the Rugby World: Race, Gender, Commerce'' edited by Timothy J L Chandler and John Nauright (). See especially pages 92–94. Book page

* ''National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer'' by Stefan Szymanski, Andrew S Zimbalist () Book Page

{{Team sports Team sports Ball games Association football variants Sports originating in Italy Italian Fascism Hybrid sports

See also

References