88 is used as a short hand code for the letters HH which stands for "Heil Hitler".
    • Chup@feddit.deEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      At the end of the article:

      According to Sports Illustrated, two players in Italy’s top league, Serie A, currently wear No. 88: Lazio’s Toma Bašić and Atalanta’s Mario Pašalić.

      I just looked up both on Wikipedia and nothing weird or regarding Nazi connections mentioned there, so maybe just a coincidence to get a nice looking 2-digit number, not knowing the code behind it.

      • shapesandstuff@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        not knowing the code behind it.

        Idk how italy works on the matter but as a German it’d be highly unlikely not to know these. Since Italy was part of the axis it feels like people would be aware.

        For the uninitiated H is the 8th letter and HH is a shorthand for the hail. 88 is the dogwhistle

        • hannes3120@feddit.deEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Not to mention Lazio being known for having ultra groups that are borderline neo-nazi…

      • hannes3120@feddit.deEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Isn’t Lazio known for their extremely far-right Ultras?

        Might not be intentional from his side but he for sure knew that that would make his shirt popular in certain parts of the fanbase…

    • rsn@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Generally they don’t, which makes it more ‘intentional’ when they do. Usually the numbers are <30.