violence in italy

[Guest kaiserkevin]

fixtures for this week in Italy are off.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6326513.stm

[AE]

  kaiserkevin said:

fixtures for this week in Italy are off.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6326513.stm

 

 

Bye bye Euro 2012

bye bye World cup 2018

[R A Softlad]

I saw the delay in the Catania match at half time because tear gas or smoke from flares made visibility so poor. Sad that the aftermath has left at least one family without a son/husband/father.

[Guest Portly]

I was in Sicily on holiday last year. I was looking for a couple of football shirts to take home, and walking around the back streets of Catania, I was surprised to find an ?Ultras? shop selling hooligan accessories.

 

The Ultras are a fascistic organisation of football troublemakers, and it seems worrying that they are so well-established that they are allowed to have a shop with their name over the door!

[wildcatlh]

Interesting response from one of the team execs, though I can't really argue with his thinking.

 

  Quote

Catania club executive Pietro Lo Monaco reacted to news of the officer's death by announcing he would leave football.

 

"I've heard that a policeman has died," he said. "To speak of football right now seems useless. For me this is the end. I will leave the football world.

 

"I don't recognise myself in this world anymore. I have loved football intensely but after this right now it seems absurd."

[Montse]

All football has been suspended in Italy...

 

Italian football suspended after police fatality

 

Football in Italy has been suspended indefinitely after a police officer died during fan violence at a Serie A match between two Sicilian teams last night. The action includes all Serie A and B matches and Italy's friendly with Romania scheduled for next Wednesday.

"I have demanded a stop to all activity of football in Italy," said the Italian football federation commissioner, Luca Pancalli, after an emergency meeting. "Enough is enough. It's a situation that I cannot speak of. To lose your life at 38 is incredible. This is not a sport. The football tournaments will remain suspended until we solve the violence in our football."

 

Rioting fans forced the Catania v Palermo match to be suspended in the 58th minute - with Palermo leading 1-0 - after tear-gas filled the Angelo Massimino stadium. The match restarted after about 30 minutes but the violence continued after the game, which Palermo won 2-1. According to reports the officer, named as Filippo Raciti, died after an explosive device struck him in the face outside the stadium. He was taken to hospital where he died from his injuries.

About 100 people were reported to be injured, some seriously, after fighting in the build-up to the game and throughout the evening, and after the final whistle the players and staff were held in the stadium by police while the area was secured.

 

"I am extremely disappointed. Things cannot continue like this," said the Palermo coach, Francesco Guidolin. "We had to go back to the changing rooms because we couldn't breathe. If we cannot get into our heads that football is a sport we cannot live in the world of football."

 

The Palermo president, Maurizio Zamparini, said: "This evening no one has won. We have all lost. These people are not fans but are delinquents that in other countries like England would have been arrested and seriously punished. We need more severe laws."

 

 

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2005147,00.html

 

Sad that it takes a death for them to get their act together

[muleskinner]

  Portly said:

I was in Sicily on holiday last year. I was looking for a couple of football shirts to take home, and walking around the back streets of Catania, I was surprised to find an ?Ultras? shop selling hooligan accessories.

 

The Ultras are a fascistic organisation of football troublemakers, and it seems worrying that they are so well-established that they are allowed to have a shop with their name over the door!

 

Considering who has the real power in Southern Italy it's not surprising.

[floyd]

Italian footy has had a problem for years. This tragic event might be the insentive, to once and all, get a fvckin grip of it.

[AE]

  R A Softlad said:

Sad that the aftermath has left at least one family without a son/husband/father.

 

Aye, well said.

But the football authorities and Government has "ignored" their football problems for years.

Maybe Italy will now wake up to it and start doing what we did 20 years ago.

Edited February 3, 2007 by AE