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{{Short description|Italian 20th century ball game}}
{{Italics title}}
'''''Volata''''' ("flow") is a code of [[football]] developed and promoted by [[Fascio|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]] and [[rugby union]].

Association football was popular in Italy when the fascists came to power in 1921. Rugby union 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 football|English game]]" (because the rules had been codified by the English [[The Football Association]] 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]]''. By 1927, fascist propaganda actively promoted rugby, which it referred to as ''palla ovale'' ("oval ball"). However, the ''[[Italian Rugby Federation|Federazione Italiana Rugby]]'' proved resistant to manipulation and the fascists quickly ceased their support.

The national secretary of the Fascist Party, [[Augusto Turati]], devised ''volata''. Officially, the rules were based on long-extinct codes of football indigenous to Italy, especially the Roman ''harpastum'' and the medieval ''[[Calcio storico fiorentino|calcio fiorentino]]''. ''Volata'' was contested by eight-member sides,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Chandler |first1=Timothy John Lindsay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bT4R23yidcEC&dq=volata&pg=PP1 |title=Making the Rugby World: Race, Gender, Commerce |last2=Nauright |first2=John |date=1999 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-7146-4853-8 |language=en}}</ref> 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"'').<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie7y2DSkfW0 ''Istituto Luce'', 1929, ''Partita di "volata" allo stadio del P.N.F. di Roma''] (1 September 2016).</ref> Use of the word "''calcio''" was ambiguous, as it was the usual name of association football, as well as ''calcio storico 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.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} However, the enduring popularity of association football caused the fascists to change their attitude toward the sport.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Szymanski |first1=Stefan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9XzfPqTH7kcC&dq=volata&pg=RA1-PA69 |title=National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer |last2=Zimbalist |first2=Andrew |date=2005-03-11 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8157-9764-7 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1933, ''volata'' organizations and competitions were officially abandoned. Afterwards the fascists encouraged association football; Italy hosted and won the [[1934 FIFA World Cup|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.

==See also==
* ''[[Harpastum]]''
* ''[[Calcio storico fiorentino]]''
* [[Football in Italy#History|History of association football in Italy]]
* [[Rugby union in Italy#History|History of rugby in Italy]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie7y2DSkfW0 Volata match].

{{Hybrid sport}}
{{Team sports}}
{{Football codes}}

[[Category:Team sports]]
[[Category:Ball games]]
[[Category:Association football variants]]
[[Category:Sports originating in Italy]]
[[Category:Italian fascism]]
[[Category:Hybrid sports]]
[[Category:Politics and sports]]