Italian Football Suspended

Sports & Recreation Forum

All games in Italy have been postponed following a policeman's death at Palermo's Sicilian derby with Catania.

The police officer was killed in clashes between both sets of fans outside Stadio Massimino before and after the match.

The dead officer is believed to have been hit in the face by an explosive thrown by some fans.

Italian Federation commissioner Luca Pancalli and sport minister Giovanna Melandri made the decision to call off action over the weekend as a result of the tragedy.

"I have demanded a stop to all activity of football in Italy," Pancalli said in a statement. "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.

"It's unacceptable that such incidents happen in a country like Italy."

The game itself was marred by crowd trouble with the second half held up for 30 minutes after tear gas was thrown onto the pitch.

Palermo won the game 2-1 with two controversial goals and Catania president Antonio Pulvirenti wants the game replayed and has blamed Palermo fans for the trouble.

"Clearly the incidents were provoked by the Palermo fans when they entered the stadium," said Pulvirenti.

"Before then, nothing had happened, but they started causing trouble and as the images show threw tear gas onto the pitch.

"They were well-organised and came here in order to cause trouble. We feel penalised and will appeal against the result so that the match will be considered void.

"We've been punished for less in the past and demand the same treatment.

"I was on the field and, if you look carefully, the section where the tear gas came from only had Palermo fans in there.

"The officials saw what happened and will take action."

Tournaments suspended until they stop violence in Italian football eh so the 2007/08 season will probably be finished sometime in 2050 then maybe.
Italian football has been like this for years on end and the Italin football authorities have shown over the years they have no desire to stop it, they want to look at those responasble for the cops death I suggest they find a mirror because this happend week in week out and they do nothing and it takes a death before they do something thats really sad that it had to go this for. Also where are UEFA you know the board that can take control if the domestic association wont I'll tell you where UEFA are they are sitting in Geneva counting the cash Italian clubs bring in in terms of TV revenue. Feynorrd banned from Euroean compettion due to crowd probelms lets see Palermo and Catania dished out the same punishment.
Italian football has the most violent, bigoted, racist fans in the world it's a damn disgrace that thos in power let it get this far and if heads don't roll at both association and club level then that poor cop died for nothing.

Here are some of the low points in Italian football in the last 25 years.

We know what happend to this poorpoliceman but what is not widely known is that his partner is fighting for his life.

in 1982 Juventus fans attempted to destroy the bus of Scottish team Celtic.

Last week the Director of lower league team Sanmartinese was kicked to death trying to stop rival fans fighting

In the same weekend Catania fans started rioting during a match with Atlanta

In 1999 four Salerintina fans were burned to death after rival fans set fire to the train taking them home

In 2005 AC Milan goalkeeper Dida suffred bad burns and bruises when Inter Milan fans threw lit flares at him

in 2001 Inter Milans Ultras set a moped on fire and threw at rival fans below them

Napoli CaptainnFrancesco Baldini was attacked by fans while he was sitting in his car

Messina goalkeeper Emanuele Mannita was punched unconcsious by fans during a match

In 2003 1 fanb died and 30 police were hospitalised when Napolis fans rioted at Avellino

When Wales played Italy 2003 Welsh fans had 90 minutes of missiles being rained down on them

Scotland fans had to get a police escort in 2005 after Italy fans turned on each other when they could not get near the Scots

Last year 3 Middlesbourgh fans were stabbed to death after thier team lost 2 - 1 to Roma in Rome.

All this is bad enough but then there was the embarresing corruption cases in 23006 that saw big teams getting relegated, docked points, and heavily fined for breaking certain rules on results and I think transfers.

Throughout all this the pinishemnt has been Inter Milan playing behind closed doors for the racist attack on the AC Milan goalkeeper yep the had to play a whole 3 games without fans. Good to know UEFA dealt with it then it really sent out a message.

The Iatlaian FA are just as spineless after the riot that caused 1 death and 30 cops hopistalised they made Napoli play 5 games behind closed doors.
I will bet the following Italian football will be back in a month or so and it will go back to the old days. As for UEFA they wont risk disqaulifying Italian teams from Europen cup games and FIFA won't ban Italy from the forthcoming European Championship and World cup Qaulifiers, so nobody will learn.

On Monday Scotland and Lithuiana and FRance willsend security experts over to Italy to decide if it is safe for fans of these countries to go to Italy for matches that will be vital to Italies chances of qualifying for the Europan Championship, the foreign office in the UK is also monitoring the situation in Italy and will be advising fans on wether to travel before Celtic go to Milan in a few months. It has got hat bad and while most honest fans of any sport would be embarresed by this it appears that Italin fans see this as a badge of honour they almost like being this notorious.