Days after a policeman was killed by rioting soccer fans in Sicily, Italian authorities have decided to bar spectators from stadiums that don't meet safety regulations. This is just one of several drastic measures to combat soccer violence the government will pass by decree.
Officer Filippo Raciti, 38, was killed Friday by rioting fans who threw an explosive device in his face after the Catania-Palermo Derby. All games — domestic and international — were indefinitely suspended. The government announced a packet of emergency measures. And Interior Minister Giuliano Amato has vowed the violence must stop or else the games will.
"It seems absurd to have soccer played without a public, but it is even more absurd that someone should die for soccer," said Interior Minister Giuliano Amato.
Only four Italian stadiums meet the required safety norms which means when matches are allowed to resume, most teams will play to empty seats. Other measures include greater use of surveillance cameras and stricter punishments for anyone involved in the violence. Clubs will also be barred from selling blocks of tickets to hard-core fans known as "ultras" who are responsible for soccer violence throughout the country.
"Everyone knows who those thugs are, for one reason or another no one wants to arrest them," 30-year soccer spectator Carlo Piet Rangeli said. "They make up maybe 5 percent of all spectators. I've seen these groups in different cities — they're all linked together. And all they want to do is beat up policemen."
Rangeli said he finds it increasingly tough to go to matches.
One of the new government measures is to force clubs to cut all ties to the ultras.
"There are many clubs that give huge blocks of tickets to the ultras, and these fans use them to finance their sprees of violent attacks," Former Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said. "These ultras are now more powerful than the clubs themselves."
In many cities, the ultras are the concessionaires for team merchandise and have financial links with the clubs. Catania President Antonino Pulvirenti said his club has been fighting a losing battle against the mafia-like troublemakers, inspired by extreme right-wing and xenophobic ideas. He called them barbarians "who have held us hostage for years."
But one of the main challenges to curbing violence is deciding who will pay for the costly safety measures needed in many stadiums. The arenas typically belong to local municipalities, not teams. This conundrum has already obstructed enactment of earlier anti-violence legislation.
Club owners are worried about the economic impact of the games' suspension. Association of Italian Soccer Clubs President Antonio Matarese went so far as to say that deaths form part of the soccer world and the game must go on, a remark that was widely criticized.
But some analysts worry that economic concerns may prevail. Italian soccer produces an annual turnover of $6.5 billion and the state takes in nearly $400 million annually in tax revenues from legal betting.
Nevertheless drastic measures are necessary if the national collective love affair with soccer is to survive. Italian stadiums have become the most deadly in Europe, many of them are now no-go zones for the police. And sports-loving spectators are becoming an endangered species.
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