Italy Suspends Football Following Officer's Death During Riots

One hundred people were injured in riots in Italy following a football match between two Sicilian teams, and one police officer was killed after having an explosive thrown in his face. In response, Italian Federation leaders have suspended all football games for the next week.



I have one question that perhaps a European member of ATS can help answer. What breeds the violence that seems to follow so many football games? Are these tensions based in deeper political or racial perceptions, or are they just angry that the other guys won?

I am of Italian descent and in truth this kind of stuff is a problem all over Europe, it really has nothing to do with race or politics. This particular incident may have been exacerbated by the fact that the match was between two Sicilian teams where the rivalry is very heated, a battle of Sicily so to speak. In any case this is the latest of many in a long string of European soccer fatalities; It's simply taken far too seriously and this is the end result.

It's funny, when my cousin was visiting me here in Toronto he didn't like watching hockey games; he felt the sport was too rough, not a gentleman's sport like soccer he said! Soccer players may be of a gentler disposition then hockey players, but the fans sure aren't.

And to think us English get the bad name wherever we go. Truth be told, we're actually the best behaved, it's just the rest of Europe doesn't like us much.

Also, where there not riots after an American Football game a few years back? I distinctly remember some sporting event in the States suffering from a good old riot...

It's not a football thing, it will happen wherever you get two opposing teams whose fans get a little "heated", be it football or whatever.

The only sport that I am reasonably confident of there never being any violence is Rugby, although I may be wrong...

I agree it's something Europe wide. The US has it's gangs, Europe has it's football "firms".

Testosterone, low self esteem, and the sense of "belonging" for these people, and an adiction to the adrenalin rush before or after a fight, are some of the basic factors. Maybe the only reason it doesn't happen in the states is that the gun culture means gang fighting isn't something you could do every saturday, at least not for very long!

There's a whole "alternative politic" going on, and lots of history. Many of the gangs double as "rent-a-thugs" for the top tier people in the firm, who are usually seriously big league criminals.

When Željko Ražnatović, better know as Arkan, was asked to form the Serb Voluteer Guards, better know as the death squards, he recruited most of them from the gang that followed Red-Star Belgrade, the major football team in the country.

The autopsy reveleated that anti riots ammo like those could have killed the officer: www.asromaultras.it...
Mybe it was friendly fire

www.asromaultras.it...
Regarding the football, personally i watch only Italy during official matchs (world cup or Euro Cup).



[edit on 6-2-2007 by L3X]

Originally posted by Togetic
I have one question that perhaps a European member of ATS can help answer. What breeds the violence that seems to follow so many football games? Are these tensions based in deeper political or racial perceptions, or are they just angry that the other guys won?

Football hooliganism in England is fueled by the emotion felt by the fans for their club.While it is not acceptable in society,football is a release for a lot of working class people who while following their clubs become part of a family and their club becomes a very important part of their life.This being said nowadays a lot of English hooligans are proffessional people (lawyers )etc.

This being said there is now no where near theaamount of hooliganism there was in the 80's ,mainly due to all seater stadiums and increased policing and segregation.

KUHL BWFC Nat LOfthouse Upper

Hmm, I take offence to some of that Kuhl (Martin?). I am working class, proud of it, and never been involved in football violence in my life, nor do I know anyone who has - except by reputation. Hooligans are socially inept morons, class plays no part whatsoever, thank you.

Also policing has added far more to problems of violence than it has resolved, check out SWFC fans at Walsall being arrested and locked up merely for wearing Burberry while standing in a queue a few years ago, the only fan (thankfully) ever killed at a game at Millmoor being a Swansea supporter trampled to death by a police horse while he was bending over and countless thousands of other examples. All seater stadia are also literally a pain in the arse to genuine supporters and have not contributed to the abating of football violence in any way, nor were they even recommended by the Taylor report, and yet we have had them foisted upon us. The real reason for the drop in football violence was the rehabilitation of football and the hordes of new supporters it attracted after Italia 90 when the Englad team did unexpectedly well, which was reinforced with Euro 96 when football was cemented as fashionable again. In the intervening years the media decided that football was trendy again and began promoting a more positive image, the game itself hardly changed at all in this respect, only the reporting. Every single isolated incidence of violence was no longer held up as representative of what went on at every ground in the country, as it had been before. A knock on effect of this was that football violence really did decline as the idiots began to be starved of publicity. By the way, the real level of violence in England never, ever reached the levels you see regularly in Europe and South America (why are they never mentioned?) and yet the 'English Hooligan' is the archetypal 'thug'. Talk about give a dog a bad name.

Waynos, RUFC, half-built Main Stand.

[edit on 7-2-2007 by waynos]

as long as theur is the great sport of football, there will be very heated rivalries. in the World Cup 2006 Germany games, Germany had to create a seperate group of crowd control just to control the Polish population during the games, because one of the biggest rivalries in Europe is that between Germany and Poland, much like England and Scotland and so on and so forth


i think its part of football though, would it be half as exciting without the riots?