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FT.com
Outbreak of racist taunts plaguing Italian football
By Tony Barber in Rome
Published: February 4 2006 02:00
Italy's government and football authorities are on high alert at stadiums this weekend to combat a plague of racism and hooliganism contaminating the nation's favourite sport.
At a game last Sunday between Roma and Livorno - two clubs in Serie A, Italy's top league - crowds held aloft anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi banners insulting fans of Livorno and Lazio, Roma's rival club in the Italian capital.
One slogan read: "Lazio-Livorno, stessa iniziale, stesso forno" - "Lazio and Livorno, same initial, same oven". Another slogan, in German, read: "Gott mit uns" - "God with us", the inscription on the belt buckles of Nazi soldiers in the second world war.
The Italian football federation's disciplinary committee has ordered Roma to play their next home match at a neutral venue and behind closed doors, but some government ministers complained the punishment was too mild for the crime.
"The entire football world is going through a crisis, because the only thing that counts today is that the show goes on," said Gianfranco Fini, foreign minister. "The talk is all about 'zero tolerance' and then every Sunday these situations come up."
Giuseppe Pisanu, interior minister, blamed the incidents on rightwing extremists who infiltrated Roma's stadium, rather than the club's real fans. He said there was enough evidence to imprison the perpetrators for terms of three months to one year.
He also proposed that Italian football games be automatically suspended if symbols or slogans were on display that incited political violence, racism or xenophobia. Under existing laws, the police can stop football matches in mid-game but are not obliged to do so, meaning they have considerable discretion in assessing how dangerous or offensive an incident is.
Last Sunday's trouble was only the latest involving big Italian clubs. Last season Roma had to play two games in the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club competition, behind closed doors after the referee in a Roma-Dynamo Kiev match suffered a head wound from a coin thrown from the stands. Lazio and Inter, a renowned Milan club, were also punished because of fans' behaviour.
The government has tried to crack down on hooliganism by increasing video surveillance inside stadiums.
FT.com
Outbreak of racist taunts plaguing Italian football
By Tony Barber in Rome
Published: February 4 2006 02:00
Italy's government and football authorities are on high alert at stadiums this weekend to combat a plague of racism and hooliganism contaminating the nation's favourite sport.
At a game last Sunday between Roma and Livorno - two clubs in Serie A, Italy's top league - crowds held aloft anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi banners insulting fans of Livorno and Lazio, Roma's rival club in the Italian capital.
One slogan read: "Lazio-Livorno, stessa iniziale, stesso forno" - "Lazio and Livorno, same initial, same oven". Another slogan, in German, read: "Gott mit uns" - "God with us", the inscription on the belt buckles of Nazi soldiers in the second world war.
The Italian football federation's disciplinary committee has ordered Roma to play their next home match at a neutral venue and behind closed doors, but some government ministers complained the punishment was too mild for the crime.
"The entire football world is going through a crisis, because the only thing that counts today is that the show goes on," said Gianfranco Fini, foreign minister. "The talk is all about 'zero tolerance' and then every Sunday these situations come up."
Giuseppe Pisanu, interior minister, blamed the incidents on rightwing extremists who infiltrated Roma's stadium, rather than the club's real fans. He said there was enough evidence to imprison the perpetrators for terms of three months to one year.
He also proposed that Italian football games be automatically suspended if symbols or slogans were on display that incited political violence, racism or xenophobia. Under existing laws, the police can stop football matches in mid-game but are not obliged to do so, meaning they have considerable discretion in assessing how dangerous or offensive an incident is.
Last Sunday's trouble was only the latest involving big Italian clubs. Last season Roma had to play two games in the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club competition, behind closed doors after the referee in a Roma-Dynamo Kiev match suffered a head wound from a coin thrown from the stands. Lazio and Inter, a renowned Milan club, were also punished because of fans' behaviour.
The government has tried to crack down on hooliganism by increasing video surveillance inside stadiums.