Thursday February 8, 2007

I don’t know about you, but Friday was one of the bleakest moments I’ve ever had as a fan of Italian football. We’ve seen deaths before at football games but the level of hatred and organised violence behind the Catania fan’s attacks left me bewildered.

This weekend, at the height of their mourning, Filippo Raciti’s widow and daughter made graceful and impassioned appeals in memory of the murdered officer. Their hope is that his death can at least mark a line in the sand in Italy’s treatment of football violence. So far the Government and Federation are doing their best to live up to those hopes, but it won’t be easy.

The truth is that similar events to Friday’s have been taking place in Italy for many years. After all, Catania – Palermo even started with a minute’s silence of a man kicked to death in a row after an amateur league game five days beforehand. For years players and even referees have run the risk of assault from fans dissatisfied with their performances. Attacks have mainly taken place in the lower Divisions, but Serie A hasn’t been immune either. Remember the many angry invasions of Lazio’s training ground by their Ultra’s? Or Juventus’ Andrea Fortunato, slapped around by fans at training for ‘not trying’, shortly before his diagnosis with Leukaemia?

The authorities and clubs have allowed the Ultras to become, literally, a law unto themselves – and nowhere more so than at the stadium. Here the total inaccessibility of many Curva’s means the police will not set foot inside, no matter what is taking place there. “It isn’t part of the Italian Republic” commented one police officer on Catania’s Curva Nord, the scene of Friday’s fatal barrage, “It’s their territory.” And with only one way in or out of it, police have already been ambushed there earlier this season. “Going in there” the officer concludes, “is like an act of War.”

So what now? The Federation and the Government have made the right start, firstly by suspending matches and secondly by insisting that stadiums that don’t meet crowd-control standards must not be open to supporters. The reaction of some of the club’s owners has been disappointing. Some have complained of the Federation’s ‘fascist’ decisions and have threatened a strike. No one likes the idea of empty grounds, but it shouldn’t take long to get their grounds up to date – and after all, this law has been in force for two years now.

If football wants to free itself of these violent fans there must be an end to the concessions and exceptions – that’s what has fuelled the Ultra’s ever increasing power. From now on the rules must stand for all. Sure, it’ll be a shame that the majority of fans will find it harder to attend the games, and it’ll be a shame too that the old era of flare-filled curves will now be at an end. Many law-abiding Ultra’s will also feel themselves demonised by the restrictions, and again, that’s a pity. But compared to the ongoing tragedy of violence that came to a head last Friday, it’s all a price worth paying.