On October 16, 2012, a veteran lawyer and Corso nationalist Antoine Sollacaro was shot at a gas station near Ajaccio by a group of hooded men. Sollacaro was a lawyer for independence militant Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1998 murder of Prefect Claude Erignac. However, according to the official versions, her murder has nothing to do with the murder of the young woman. The media disseminated the following among the cold data: “Since 2008 there have been 101 murders on the island for every 300,000 inhabitants. The situation in Corsica is more serious than in Sicily.” And an unanswered question in the air: “Who killed Sollacaro?” Who killed Jacques Nacion, the well-known president and independence leader of the South Corsica Chamber of Commerce in November last year? Who killed Jean-Luc Chiappini, president of the Corsica Natural Park on 25 April? Chiappini was the designer of the GR20 mountain route that runs through the country. On the right and left, the law protects 40% of the island’s land, including some coastal areas desired by speculative businessmen. Can it have anything to do with the murder of Chiappini? The National Police has not yet given a specific answer to the question of whether there were incidents. Seven out of ten murders remain unresolved in Corsica.

Sollacaro was killed that weekend of 2012, in Ligue1 for the first time since 2005, Ajaccio and Bastia faced, traditionally close to nationalist movements, as did other football teams in the country. Before the beginning of the Derbi, the two hobbies sang the corso anthem Dio vi Salvi Regina in tribute to the deceased lawyer, who was arrested. This football match is the starting point of the report The Battle of Corsica (The Battle of Corsica), published by journalist Aitor Lagunas in issue 17 of Panenka magazine.

The tragedies added

On 5 May 1992, before the semi-final of the Cup between Bastia and the Olympique in Marseilles began, the additional stands of the Furiani stadium fell and 18 people died. “Here you can talk about everything: independence, mafias… but not what happened in Furiani; ours is a small country and we all know someone who was there,” says journalist Thomas Andrei.

François Mitterrand at the time and recently French presidents François Hollande committed themselves to ensuring that the government respects the duel and that there will be no more football matches on 5 May. But it has not taken any steps. “It is a great lack of respect that this date is not yet sacred,” regrets Jean-Paul Cappuri, journalist of the newspaper Corse Matin, in Furiani: "It seems that it is a drama that only concerns the Corsican, but it is the greatest tragedy that French football has suffered in its lifetime. ‘Stay with your mourning, with your memories, and do not leave the island’ is as if they told us.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Corsica National Liberation Front (FLNC) carried out numerous attacks on “criminals of the land”, until in 1990 it was divided into two: For a Canal Historique and for another Canal Habituel. The adjustment of accounts between the two resulted in twelve deaths and the independence movement was severely weakened. The wave of solidarity following the rage helped heal the wounds of this fragmentation, but the feeling of injustice and discrimination is still alive on the island. In 1972 Bastia lost the Cup final against the Olympique in Marseille. In handing over the trophy, President Georges Pampidou addressed the winners' captain: “I am glad that this Cup remains in French lands.” The corsicans have not forgotten it.

In the 1990s, when there was a split in the liberation movement, and possibly as a consequence, the corsican teams suffered a long period of chacal, until in 2009 Bastia was about to descend to the amateur category. Nine members, including a plumber, a mechanic and an electrician, bought the group and since then managed it with each other.

Once the most cruel times have passed, Corsican nationalism will resume. The independence movement that does not want the island’s economy to be based solely on tourism had a boom in the regional elections of 2010, when the different branches of nationalism received 35% support. At the same time, the recovery of the island’s football teams began and, at the same time, the reactivation of the team.

Eleven Corsican players played in the last Derbi, which began with the silence of attorney Sollacaro. The former nationalist leader and current president of Ajaccio, Alain Orsoni, sadly recalls the death of his sentimental partner.