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| Foto: Ultras Avanti |
Long before Bergamo’s Curva Nord became one of the most recognisable terraces in Italian football, organised support for Atalanta was still in its infancy. The city had passionate followers and traditional supporters’ clubs, but it did not yet possess the coordinated chants, banners, flags and away-day organisation that would later define its fan culture. That began to change in December 1971 with the formation of the Atalanta Commandos.
The Commandos were the first organised ultras-style group in Atalanta’s history and the starting point of a supporter movement that would eventually become famous throughout Italy. Their methods were different from those adopted by the harder generations that followed, but they created the structure, visual identity and sense of collective belonging from which Bergamo’s Curva Nord developed.
Born on the Road from Verona
The story began on 12 December 1971, when Atalanta travelled to Verona for a Serie A match. The Bergamo supporters were impressed by the coordinated support of the recently formed Brigate Gialloblù, whose flags, chants and organisation represented a new way of following football. Atalanta won the match 2–1, but what happened on the journey home proved even more important for the future of the club’s terraces. On a coach organised by the Club Amici dell’Atalanta, seven young supporters decided that Bergamo needed a group capable of bringing similar energy to Atalanta matches. Piermauro “Mamo” Rovetta, Claudio Savoldelli, Maurizio Carsana, Carlo Agazzi, Fulvio Bresciani, Dario Malacarne and Lucio Bazzana are recognised as the group’s original founders. Most were between sixteen and eighteen years old.
The decision made on the road from Verona was soon transformed into a formal organisation in Bergamo. Meetings were initially held at a dairy in Via Matris Domini, before the group established its first headquarters in a garage in Via San Tomaso. It later moved to a basement in Borgo Santa Caterina, the neighbourhood beside Atalanta’s stadium that would become inseparable from the club’s supporter culture. The name Atalanta Commandos reflected the language of early organised support in Italy. Groups such as Milan’s Commandos Tigre had already introduced a more militant style of naming, and their example influenced the young founders in Bergamo. However, the Atalanta Commandos would develop a philosophy very different from that of many groups that subsequently adopted similar names.
The First Banner and the Curva Sud Years
The Commandos displayed their first banner on 9 January 1972, during a home match against Bologna. At that time, the group occupied the Curva Sud of Bergamo’s old Stadio Comunale rather than the northern end that would later become the traditional home of Atalanta’s ultras. The same early banner was taken to San Siro one week later for an away match against Milan. Its design was relatively simple, bearing the name Atalanta Commandos. Even so, displaying a permanent group banner represented an important change in Bergamo. Support was no longer being expressed only by individuals and conventional fan clubs; a recognisable collective had emerged with its own name, symbols and place inside the stadium.
The group introduced organised chants, large flags and drums, gradually transforming the atmosphere around Atalanta matches. At one point, more than twenty drums were reportedly attached along the front of the terrace. Handmade scarves, orange Commandos shirts, badges, stickers and other items also helped members develop a shared identity. The Commandos travelled extensively with Atalanta, including to distant stadiums in southern Italy at a time when away journeys were slower, more expensive and considerably less comfortable than today. They organised their own coaches and encouraged members to follow the team regardless of the division, opponent or distance. In doing so, they established many of the habits that later became essential elements of Atalanta’s ultras culture.
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| Foto: Ultras Avanti |
From the Curva Sud to the Curva Nord
A decisive moment arrived in March 1973. The original Commandos banner was taken by Torino supporters during an away match on 11 March, forcing the group to produce a replacement. One week later, on 18 March, the new banner made its debut during another home match against Bologna. That match also marked the Commandos’ permanent move from the Curva Sud to the Curva Nord. The northern end offered cheaper admission and better opportunities to display banners, while the club installed suitable poles along the terrace. Although the Curva Nord was less comfortable because supporters often faced the sun, its lower ticket price made it attractive to younger fans.
The second Commandos banner became the group’s most recognisable symbol. It featured a closed fist on one side and a hand forming a V-sign on the other. The fist generated discussion because it could be interpreted as a left-wing symbol, but the group officially remained apolitical, while the V-sign was presented as a balancing image associated with victory and peace. The move of 18 March 1973 is widely regarded as the symbolic beginning of Atalanta’s Curva Nord. The stand would later be dedicated to Federico Pisani, the Atalanta player who died in a car accident in 1997, but its identity as the centre of organised support had been established more than two decades earlier by the Commandos.
An Organised but Non-Violent Group
Unlike many later ultras organisations, the Atalanta Commandos operated with formal membership, internal rules and an official statute. Members paid an annual fee that entitled them to reduced prices on organised trips, participation in meetings, voting rights and a group badge. The organisation therefore combined elements of a traditional supporters’ club with the emerging style of the Italian ultras movement. Its most distinctive principle was the rejection of violence. The statute allowed members to be expelled for hooligan behaviour, and the group openly described its members as genuine supporters who wished to defend Atalanta without seeking confrontation with rival fans. Politics was also formally excluded from the organisation.
The Commandos did not consider pyrotechnics central to their support. Their early displays were built around banners, flags, drums, scarves and continuous vocal backing. According to accounts from former members, the group could be extremely strict about these rules, even disciplining individuals who introduced fireworks against the wishes of its leadership. This does not mean that the Commandos lacked passion or commitment. Their vision was based on disciplined support, visible colours, constant attendance and loyalty to Atalanta. At a time when organised football support was still developing, they attempted to demonstrate that intensity and collective identity did not have to depend on physical confrontation.
The Notiziario Atalanta Commandos
The group’s activity extended well beyond matchdays. It organised football matches, social gatherings, walks and other events intended to strengthen relationships among members. Its headquarters became a regular meeting place where journeys, displays and group decisions could be discussed. One of its most important projects was the Notiziario Atalanta Commandos, the first publication connected to Bergamo’s organised terrace. Produced for approximately six years, it was a sixteen-page mimeographed bulletin featuring typewritten articles, letters and hand-drawn cartoons. Copies were distributed in the Curva Nord, sometimes in exchange for voluntary contributions.
The publication gave the supporters an independent voice and created a written record of terrace life. It discussed Atalanta, away journeys, the organisation of support and practical issues inside the stand. Long before websites and social media, the Notiziario allowed the group to communicate directly with its members and explain its principles. The Commandos also produced some of the first basic choreographies seen in the Curva Nord. These displays were much simpler than the large-scale mosaics and painted coverings associated with later decades, but they represented an important step towards coordinated visual support. Flags, drums, coloured clothing and organised chants transformed the northern terrace into a distinct area of the stadium.
Growth and the Rise of New Groups
During their most active period in the second half of the 1970s, the Commandos developed a sizeable registered membership. Contemporary recollections suggest that the active core remained relatively small, while the wider organisation reached approximately 200 registered members between 1976 and 1978. For the early years of Italian organised support, this was a significant network. The group experienced one of its most memorable occasions in June 1977, when thousands of Atalanta supporters travelled to Genoa for the promotion play-off against Cagliari. The Commandos banner was displayed alongside those of the newer organisations that were beginning to change the balance of power inside the Curva Nord. Atalanta won 2–1 and secured promotion to Serie A.
By then, however, the Commandos were no longer alone. Groups such as the Sbandati and Ultras-Fossa had emerged, bringing different attitudes and identities to the terrace. Most importantly, the Brigate Neroazzurre were formed in 1976 by supporters who considered the Commandos too moderate. The Brigate promoted a more confrontational interpretation of the ultras mentality and introduced an openly political, far-left identity. Their approach appealed to many younger supporters during a period when clashes between rival fanbases were becoming increasingly common across Italy. Some Commandos members gradually moved into the new organisation, weakening the original group.
The relationship between the Commandos and the Brigate was therefore complicated. Both supported Atalanta and occupied the same terrace, but their views on violence, politics and the purpose of an ultras group were fundamentally different. By the end of the 1970s, the Brigate had become the leading force in the Curva Nord.
Decline and Dissolution
As the Italian ultras movement became more radical, the principles on which the Commandos had been founded became increasingly difficult to maintain. Violence was spreading around stadiums, political symbolism was becoming more visible and authority inside many terraces was shifting towards younger, more confrontational groups. The Commandos gradually lost members and influence. By the beginning of the 1980s, their historic banner was no longer present at every match. Atalanta’s decline to Serie C1 added to a period of uncertainty, but the disappearance of the group cannot be explained by results alone. The supporter culture surrounding it had changed dramatically since the journey home from Verona in 1971.
The Atalanta Commandos officially dissolved on 14 October 1982. Accounts from former members identify both ideological and practical reasons for the decision. The growing influence of politics and violence was incompatible with their original statute, while a significant increase in the rent for their headquarters reportedly created an additional financial problem. Their dissolution ended eleven years of activity. The Brigate Neroazzurre had already assumed control of the Curva Nord, while new groups would continue to appear during the following seasons. Wild Kaos, formed in 1983, would later join the Brigate as one of the most influential organisations in Bergamo’s increasingly complex supporter scene.
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| Foto: Ultras Avanti |
The Group That Started the Curva Nord
The Atalanta Commandos were different from the groups that later made Bergamo famous across the ultras world. They were formally organised, apolitical and committed to non-violence, combining the structure of a supporters’ association with the chants, banners, flags and away travel of the developing ultras movement. Judging them exclusively by the standards of later decades would therefore overlook their true historical importance. They gave Atalanta’s most passionate supporters a name, an organisation and eventually a permanent home in the Curva Nord. They introduced drums and large flags, coordinated away travel, produced the terrace’s first publication and created some of its earliest choreographies. Most importantly, they turned individual passion into an organised community.
Later generations followed different paths, and the Curva Nord became louder, harder and more politically divided. Yet the beginning of that history remains 12 December 1971, when seven young Atalanta supporters returned from Verona determined to change the way Bergamo supported its club. The Atalanta Commandos existed for only eleven years, but without them the story of the Curva Nord would have started very differently. They were the first organised group of the Bergamo terrace and the foundation from which one of Italy’s most distinctive supporter movements was built.