Goal.com: A History Of Violence

Last weekend Italian football was hit by an incredible tragedy. An official of a lower division club was killed during a mass brawl which took place at the end of a heated game.

Will this tricky situation jeopardize Italian bid for EURO 2012? The Italian FA is ready to crackdown on violence, if necessary halting all the championships. Luca Manes examines the bloody truth...

- I am ready to take drastic measures and if necessary I’ll halt all the competitions – including Serie A – as I cannot tolerate football violence anymore. Pancalli’s decision was backed by Gianni Petrucci, the Olimpic Committee President.

Of course there is a strong element to push the football authorities on the brink of an unprecedented decision: violence could be a major threat for the Italian bid to host EURO 2012.

Maybe Pancalli got a bit scared after UEFA banned Feyenoord because of its fans’ terrible behaviour in a UEFA Cup game, but it’s undeniable that the problem as a whole is very much on the FIGC agenda.

Recently the National Observatory on Sporting Events gave a gloomy picture of the situation.

Figures disclosed in its latest report testify that compared to last season unsafe games have increased by 41% (from 211 to 298), while people who got seriously injured in fights related to football matches decreased a bit (7%) but are still quite an impressive number (55).

Policemen were particularly targeted during incidents occurring inside or outside a stadium (202 needed medical assistance, 42% more than last season).

But violence is not the only obstacle on the bumpy road to EURO 2012. It’s not clear whether the Italian government will be financing the event (and if, how much money will be available).

The main issue regards the stadia redevelopments. Most of the arenas are just obsolete.

That sounds pretty incredible, just considering the massive amount of money spent on new stadia for the Italia 90 World Cup (well, it was less than twenty years ago, not a couple of centuries).

Even though Italian FA is desperate to get EURO 2012, looking back to the poor management which affected Italia 90, Italian taxpayers shouldn’t support that new plan, especially if public money will be used for that.

But we are ready to talk more of the nitty-gritty details about this hot topic once the UEFA big wigs will make up their minds.  We can only hope that there isn’t another avoidable and regrettable tragedy on the terraces.

What we can be sure of is that the fight against violence is breaking out on all fronts and that, just as in other countries, the first steps to stamping it out will be controversial, but this is a need for all Calcio fans – as well as all football lovers in general.

To learn more, read Goal.com.

Source: Goal.com, "A history of violence", Luca Manes, 1st February 2007