Italian Soccer (League and National Team) suspends play after Fatal Riot

[SirFozzie]

MILAN, Italy -- The Italian soccer federation threatened to suspend games indefinitely after the death of a police officer in riots at a Serie A match.

The officer was killed and more than 70 people were injured Friday when fans rioted at a game between Sicilian sides Catania and Palermo, prompting the federation to postpone all league matches this weekend and cancel a friendly between world champion Italy and Romania on Wednesday.

Commissioner Luca Pancalli said his soccer federation will meet Monday "to identify those drastic measures that will allow us to restart. Otherwise, we're not restarting the games."

A minute's silence will be held in Italy over the weekend at all non-soccer sports events.

UEFA President Michel Platini expressed concern over the latest episode of violence in European soccer and vowed to fight it.

"Violence of any sort is unacceptable, and it has absolutely no place in the game of football -- we do not condone it, we must not accept it and we must act to eradicate it," Platini said in a statement. "We must now work together with the Italian football authorities and politicians in support of the Italian game, and find a solution to this spiral of violence that is plaguing European football."

Italy's World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi said clubs needed to take more responsibility.

"The clubs should say to their fans that instead of acquiring players to reinforce their teams, the money is directed to guarantee safety," Lippi told ANSA news agency.

The Italian Olympic Committee, the highest body in Italian sport, will convene Sunday to discuss violence in soccer, while Italy's interior minister, Giuliano Amato, issued a statement saying he would debate the matter Tuesday in the lower house of Parliament.

Amato and Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri will meet Monday "to start discussing ideas for long-term measures, strong measures that can radically change the situation," Premier Romano Prodi said.

Fans rioted outside Catania's Angelo Massimino stadium during the second half Friday night. One policeman who was injured in the melee said the violence appeared to have been planned by Catania fans who attacked supporters of the rival team.

Police fired tear gas, which wafted into the stadium and forced the match to be temporarily suspended in the 58th minute with Palermo leading 1-0. Television footage from Sky TG24 News showed players struggling to breathe and pouring bottled water on their faces.

Police said the officer, 38-year-old Chief Inspector Filippo Raciti, died after an explosive device was thrown into his vehicle.

The violence continued after the game, in which Palermo beat Catania 2-1, trapping hundreds of fans inside the stadium as authorities sought to avoid further violence and stop people from leaving.

Of the 71 people injured, 61 were police officers, the ANSA news agency said. By Saturday, most had been released from hospital.

A police officer, recovering at the Garibaldi hospital, told Sky TG24 that he believed the violence was pre-planned.

[Passacaglia]

Hmm...so should I scratch my plans to see Roma play Lyon on the 21st?

[SirFozzie]

That's a Champions League game, right?

I don't think it should be affected. They're only (right now) suspending the Serie A games for a week, as well as cancelling a Italian MNT friendly as well.

This was between the hardcore supporter groups.

[Northwood_DK]

I’m not sure why they expect the fans to behave differently when they let the players get away with stuff like this http://www.geocities.com/l_p_f_c_1936/Di_Canio.jpg (Di Canio was fined but not suspended). Football in Italy is a very much about politic and the far right have good stronghold among football supporters. This is the Wikipedia text about the Lazio supporters and similar trends can be found among many of the other team’s supporters. It’s just fine if they finally decide to stop this as it was only a question of time before it really got out of control.

The club plays at the 82,656 seater Stadio Olimpico. Lazio traditionally was the club of Rome's upper middle class with most of its support coming from the city's richer northern neighborhoods, Parioli, Flaminio, Nomentano, Tiburtino, Monte Mario and Prati. Lazio's biggest ultras, or hardcore fan group today, the Irriducibili, have been the object of media attention over the past few years for their unabashed far right views. There have been allegations of real militancy within actual far right political movements, alliances being formed to fight the police with groups with similar political leanings belonging to city rivals, AS Roma, and recruitment activity among fans, however this has never really been proven. The group has been criticized in particular for racist chants and the display of racist and anti-Semitic banners, as well as one in February 2000 commemorating the then recently deceased Serbian paramilitary leader Željko (Arkan) Ražnatović. The latter was displayed on request by former player Siniša Mihajlović, though both the player and the group have always vehemently denied any political significance and insisted the banner was a reference to when the two Serbs were friends during Mihajlović's time at Red Star Belgrade where Raznatovic was a chief supporter in the early 1990s

[cartman]

One of my friends over in Italy just told me that on Italian TV they are reporting that once games start up again in a couple of weeks, the rest of season will be played out in empty stadiums.

[AlexB]

As soon as the words 'Sicilian' and 'derby' are next to each other in a sentence about football, be scared, be very scared.

After reading 'Cosa Nostra' by John Dickie, it is apparent that there are rather large local rivalries in Sicilian society, and with football arousing such passion in Italians, and both teams being in Serie A for the first time I can remember, this was not a match for the casual fan...

[Emiliano]

Can I say FINALLY???

Fucking soccer should just stop, FOREVER. The whole league is a joke anyway. And I have to pay policemen, risking their lives every damn sunday, to "watch out" for these beasts? Please. This is NOT about sport, not about local rivalry. It's about frustrated people who express their frustration with their poor lives attacking the police. These attacks are always planned, I can guarantee you that. The majority of these people DON'T want to watch the games, they're not even interested. Do you know that Italian stadiums are more and more empty every year? These animals are the (almost) only ones that "attend" games.

If we were a respectable, civil country we would have just said: "Game's over. Everybody home, without pay, until new orders." But, we are not. And a couple of weeks from now, everything's back to normal. And I'll be ashamed to be Italian, again.

Sad, but true.

[Ajaxab]

My history is a bit vague here, but how comparable is this situation to the England situation of the early 80s in terms of UEFA's ability to intervene? Certainly there aren't bands of Italian hooligans travelling around Europe causing problems and there is nothing at all like the Heysel disaster in the equation. That being said, between the referees being influenced, the violence of this last weekend and the racist subtexts of Italian football, could UEFA conceivably ban the Italians from European competition and force the Italian FA to clean up their act? If so, would a European ban make any difference?

[Ryan S]

My history is a bit vague here, but how comparable is this situation to the England situation of the early 80s in terms of UEFA's ability to intervene? Certainly there aren't bands of Italian hooligans travelling around Europe causing problems and there is nothing at all like the Heysel disaster in the equation. That being said, between the referees being influenced, the violence of this last weekend and the racist subtexts of Italian football, could UEFA conceivably ban the Italians from European competition and force the Italian FA to clean up their act? If so, would a European ban make any difference?

I don't think UEFA could intervene, and I don't think it would be appropriate anyway. This is an Italian problem, and as long as they are not exporting the problem like the marauding hordes of English hooligans in the 80s, it will remain a domestic issue.

[flere-imsaho]

I don't think UEFA could intervene, and I don't think it would be appropriate anyway. This is an Italian problem, and as long as they are not exporting the problem like the marauding hordes of English hooligans in the 80s, it will remain a domestic issue.

I think that's a good point, but the fact is that England still hasn't really solved the problem of exporting hooligans to Europe. It's gotten better since the 80s, but there are still problems.

Having said that, one thing England has done, is solve the problem domestically. You just don't see this stuff at, or around, domestic games anymore. Not to be overly simplistic, but what Italy (and perhaps Spain) needs to do is take the English model and apply it to Serie A. Furthermore, they've known that this was a problem for years, but have just been dragging their feet.

[Ryan S]

The other reason why UEFA will not intervene is because this problem is far greater in other areas of Europe, but we tend not to hear about it as the leagues are less well known.

If you ban the Italians, you need to kick out the Turks, the Dutch, the French, the Poles and many, many more.

[bhlloy]

I think that's a good point, but the fact is that England still hasn't really solved the problem of exporting hooligans to Europe. It's gotten better since the 80s, but there are still problems.

Having said that, one thing England has done, is solve the problem domestically. You just don't see this stuff at, or around, domestic games anymore. Not to be overly simplistic, but what Italy (and perhaps Spain) needs to do is take the English model and apply it to Serie A. Furthermore, they've known that this was a problem for years, but have just been dragging their feet.

I don't know that this is true actually - since they have introduced the policy of taking known hooligans passports away I don't think there has been any big trouble involving England fans away from home. I was watching a documentary a couple of weeks back that was saying England fans were among the most well behaved at Euro 2004. By far the bigger problem nwo seems to be the Dutch and the Germans. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm having a hard time trying to remember any incidents at all recently.

[SirFozzie]

Saw this lovely post over on BigSoccer.

dont you dare blame the fans for this... the problem is CONI, FIGC and above all FIFA.... organisations that are killing football... turning a game of regional pride to a game of business... the murderers are the big wig businessmen... death to the likes of Berlusconi who has been one of the main instigators for the past decade............. we the supporters are being lead astray from the devil businessmen.................... these men in suits never put on a pare of boots, let alone kicked a ball..... what right do they have to be our presidents and head figures!!! bring the game back to the pitch! arrest all the suits for murder, because it is they that have murdered our game and this indevidual police officer!

[cthomer5000]

Sounds like a reasonable argument to me. :rolleyes:

[Passacaglia]

That's a Champions League game, right?

I don't think it should be affected. They're only (right now) suspending the Serie A games for a week, as well as cancelling a Italian MNT friendly as well.

This was between the hardcore supporter groups.

That's what I figured. I hadn't heard anything about withdrawing from the CL or anything like that..and I figure hardcore supporter groups aren't as likely to be out...but you never know, especially with Serie A matches being cancelled.

[SirFozzie]

An update on this.

The Italian Government has basically said that if your stadium does not meet the safety requirements (cameras to catch people "in the act", and areas before the turnstiles where folks can be searched for fireworks/weapons/etcetera), then by golly you're going to be playing behind closed doors!

Only 5 Serie A stadiums and 1 Serie B stadium meet the full requirements, another 10 or so would be allowed to have a greatly reduced capacity, and about 8 teams would have to play behind closed doors at this point.

Of course, the smaller clubs are crying foul about how this is all a plot by the big teams to bankrupt the smaller teams because they have to pay for all this security... and to play games behind closed doors is cheating the fans..

meanwhile, they laid the cop to rest yesterday.

[Ajaxab]

In reading a little bit more about the situation, isn't most of the trouble that occurs coming from outside the ground? If so, it seems that the Italian government's 'solution' is hardly such given the activity of ultras outside these stadia. It seems that this solution is just encouraging the violence to move to another location rather than getting at the causes of the problem (or at least taking a stab at the causes of the problem).

[SirFozzie]

A lot of it is outside the stadium, but there was a lot of of fights breaking out inside the stadium. Add to that smoke bombs, and flares brought into the stadium.. (hell, at one club the fans smuggled in a MOTOR SCOOTER and pushed it off the upper deck!)

One of the other suggestions is that they not allow ticket sales to the opposing team.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, it isn't just one isolated incident. Italy really needs to get its hooliganism under control and fast! That's why the drastic measures being proposed.

[Simms]

Interesting article I read about this today: http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/178516

I had no idea this sort of stuff was so...organized (for lack of a better word). Though in hindsight, I suppose it's not terribly surprising.

[ISiddiqui]

I'd recommend "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer for more on that. Especially the organized soccer gangs in the former Yugoslavia.

[Jonathan Ezarik]

I had no idea this sort of stuff was so...organized (for lack of a better word). Though in hindsight, I suppose it's not terribly surprising.

You should check out Green Street Hooligans. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it's pretty interesting to see the hooligan side of things.

hxxp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385002/

[st.cronin]

I'd recommend "How Soccer Explains the World" by Franklin Foer for more on that. Especially the organized soccer gangs in the former Yugoslavia.

That chapter really creeped me out.