For much of the past three decades, if you said the word "hooligan" to a European, it immediately would spark mental images of rabid English soccer fans, drunkenly cursing and chanting, vandalizing stadiums, and battling each other with fists, stones, bottles, or knives.
inter.it Fans reacted violently when referee Markus Merk handed a yellow card to Inter's Esteban Cambiasso. |
English-language reports of the heavily covered match can be found at the Guardian and the BBC. A quick summary: In the 30th minute, Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko scored on a tremendous left-footed shot from the corner of the area. With 20 minutes remaining, Inter still trailed 1-0 when its Argentinian midfielder Esteban Cambiasso headed in a ball for what looked to be a goal; however, German referee Markus Merk disallowed it and called a foul on another Inter player against Milan goalkeeper Nelson Dida (whether it was a good call or not is at this point moot). Cambiasso protested vehemently and vocally, earning himself a yellow card. His anger appeared to set off the Inter fan base located in the stands behind Milan's goal, and promptly some fans began sending a hail of objects upon the pitch, including water bottles andmost impressively and dangerouslylit smoke-flares. One flare struck Dida on the shoulder, burning and bruising him. Without a peaceful way to continue play, Merk was forced to call the game. (Sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport has a stunning photo gallery of the game's highlights and its ugly, premature ending.)
Might one expect, in the face of such universal condemnation, the more rabid tifosi to take a step back, reflect a bit on how far things have gone, and decide to tone it down for a little while? Hardlythe very next day, during another Champions League game, fans of Juventus sparred and skirmished with supporters of visiting Liverpool both inside and outside the club's Turin stadium. (Guardian)
This pattern has been repeating itself for too long in Italy. (See sidebar at left.) For the past several years, and with seemingly increasing frequency, the following cycle has repeated itself: Episodes of fan violence have prompted harsh condemnations across the board, but teams and soccer authorities have done little constructive to staunch the trend. Ask who is at fault and you'll hear a range of unsatisfying answers: The players blame the refs, for corruption and bias; the refs blames the politicians, for inadequate security or enforcement; politicians blame the teams, for laxity in corralling their hate-mongering fan clubs; the teams blame the "handful of bad apples" ruining it for the real fans. Everyone agrees that change is needed, no one makes changes, and next Sunday rolls around and the episodes begin again. Repeat ad nauseam.
Or not. This week's events may have finally goaded clubs and politicians into taking some concrete steps to stem the tide of hooliganism sweeping through Italian soccer. For some months now, the idea of removing from the stands the barriers that serve to separate and concentrate visiting teams' fans has been bandied aboutthe idea being that if you remove the implication of a cage, fans will stop acting like animalsand the conversation has intensified in light of this week's events. Even before the Milan gamein reaction to multiple episodes of violence and vandalism surrounding the prior weekend's league matches, with 259 people charged, 17 arrested, and 85 police officers woundedminister of the interior Giuseppe Pisanu threatened that he may begin closing the stadiums that host the worst offenders. On Wednesday, Franco Carraro, head of the Italian soccer federation, declared the establishment of new norms for halting games due to stadium violence. Thanks to these rule changes, effective this week a game will be ended if at any point before or during play an object is thrown towards the field, and the team whose fans are responsible will suffer a 0-3 loss on the books. (An interesting possible scenario: If both teams' fans are involved, both teams are charged with a 0-3 loss.)
It is too early to ask if any of these measures will work, because first it remains to be seen if any will be implemented fully. Already we hear complaints from club presidents that Carraro's new rules and Pisanu's threats, by penalizing teams, effectively punish the victim. Maurizio Zamparini, president of Palermo, states that "[Carraro's new norms] make a clear path to the impunity of delinquents who are the ones who should be punished, and not the clubs who are the victims. Carraro has made a hasty decision just to show that he's doing something." Others have retreated to the old comfort of minimization, like Fiorentina president Diego Della Valle: "What happened in Milan is an upsetting episode that involved a small group of very agitated people." Della Valle may be right, but downplaying the situation to avoid reform is what has gotten calcio to where it is now. As every American knows, the first step is admitting you have a problem.
UEFAthe governing body of European soccer competition, including the Champions League has determinedly not minimized the situation. Yesterday UEFA passed judgment on Inter, serving the club with a fine of 300,000 Swiss francs ($250,000 US) and ordering it to play its next four home matches in European competition behind closed doors. The stadium ban will be extended to at least two more matches if there are any further offenses during a probationary period that will last three years. Inter has three days to appeal. (It probably won't: As the Independent notes, the punishment could be stiffened if an appeal fails.) The punishment could have been much worse, as many pundits had predicted up to a year-long ban from all European competition for Inter. Not an unreasonable expectation, if one considers that the flare that struck Dida, with only a slight change in its trajectory, might have easily blinded or even killed the man. Still, it is far from a slap on the wrist; as pointed out by UEFA spokesman William Gaillard, "This is the largest fine in UEFA's history. The loss of four home games amounts to seven or eight million euros [$9 million to $10 million]. It is a hefty punishment compared to anything that has been done for over five years." (BBC)
Still, I wonder: Will it be enough? There is much that can be done to improve the situation inside and outside the Italian stadiums. Good ideas abound (I have some of my own recommendations, at left), but it will take a serious and united movement among city officials, clubs, players, and fans to make real headway. They will have to avoid the roadblocks that have impeded progress thus far: placing blame, minimizing the problem, and letting stinginess or greed overwhelm good ideas.
Change will come eventually, because the current situation is unsustainable. True fans of the Italian game can only hope that it comes before "hooligan" has been replaced by "tifoso" in our common lexicon.
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