jerradpeters.blogspot.com

Chaos engulfs Italian football
Violence & bloodshed further mar national reputation
by Jerrad Peters

THE Romans first overran Arezzo in 311 B.C. And ever since, the small, Tuscan city has been something of a battleground among Italian city-states. From evicting the bishop in 1098 to surviving the artillery of the Second World War, diminutive Arezzo has always courted some sort of conflict or controversy.

On Sunday, nearly 1700-years after the first imperial incursion, the Romans invaded Arezzo again. Having completed a third of their journey from the capital to Milan, a caravan of Lazio supporters stopped at a highway filling-station. After refueling their automobiles, they had planned to round the Appeninis before turning northwards at Genoa. In Milan, at the San Siro, Serie-A leaders Inter Milan awaited Lazio and their visiting throngs. They never made it. They made one hell of a mess of Italian football instead.

As it happened, a faction of Juventus supporters was making use of the highway stop as well. From here, the details surrounding the swift escalation of hostilties is blurry; but this much is certain: the two firms clashed near a motorway on the outskirts of Arezzo. The bust-up became a battle and the police were called to intervene. When they arrived, they fired shots in the air to disperse the mobs. One of the bullets, however, struck and killed Gabriele Sanri, a 26-year-old Lazio supporter.

Word of the Arezzo battle spread quickly throughout the country. In Rome, gangs of enraged Lazio fans, many masked and armed, stormed the police headquarters near the Stadio Olimpico. Windows were shattered, the building vandalized, and automobiles lit afire. All of Sunday's Serie-A fixtures were delayed as authorities mulled the security situations in each city. The Inter-Lazio match was postponed indefinitely.

Northeast of Milan, the scheduled show-down between Atalanta and AC Milan was abandoned as well. With news of the shooting having reached Bergamo, both sets of fans united in a demonstration against authorities. After ten minutes, referee Massimiliano Saccani accompanied the two sides to their dressing rooms when it became evident that the melee had grown into an all-out riot.

AC Milan defender Alessandro Nesta, when questioned about the skirmishes, stated, "The problem is not inside the stadia. The problem is that what happens inside the stadia is a reflection of our society."

In truth, the 31-year-old Italian international hit the nail on the head with his comments. Sunday's chaos comes just months after rioting and violence resulted in the death of a policeman after a match between Palermo and Catania Calcio in Sicily. Italian football was suspended for two weeks as a result; and the government struck a new committee, L'Observatorio Nazionale sulla Manifestazione Sportive, to oversee violence in sport. Neither measure, apparently, has had any effect on the culture of violence within Italian football.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi was informed of the incidents by his interior minister while attending mass. He expressed his regret at the violence and offered condolances to Sandri's family. The country's sports minister, Giovanni Melandri, has called for all football matches to be suspended for a fortnight. "I have asked the soccer authorities if there is the possibility of a strong gesture," he commented this morning, "in particular the suspension of the championship for the next few weeks."

Meanwhile, the police officer who shot and killed Sandri agreed to an interview with Corriere della Sera. "I didn't look at anything," the unnamed officer stated. "I didn't point my gun at anyone. I was at least 200-metres away." He continued, "The first shot I fired was in the air; and the second was fired when I was running." Disconsolate, he concluded, "I have destroyed two families -- that of the man and mine."