Rules to Combat Hooliganism.

[sehnsucht79]

a bit late but anyway:

Fans Could Cost Team Points

The Italian government has backed plans which could see Serie A teams lose games if their supporters throw objects on to the pitch.

The issue of hooliganism has risen to prominence in Italy over the past few days with a weekend of violence followed by events at the San Siro, where the Champions League clash between Internazionale and AC Milan was abandoned after fans housed in the Inter section threw missiles on to the turf.

One of the missiles, a burning flare, hit Milan goalkeeper Dida on the shoulder.

The fall-out was a meeting between the Italian interior minister, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).

At that meeting, it was decided that matches will be abandoned if objects are thrown from the stands and the team whose fans are to blame will be penalised with an automatic 3-0 loss.

The measures take effect immediately.

"It's important that football clubs increase their co-operation with forces of order and increase dialogue with supporters," Franco Carraro, president of the FIGC, told the organisation's official website, www.figc.it.

Last weekend, Serie A and B games up and down the country were hit by crowd trouble.

Lazio were fined £17,000 by the Lega Calcio on Tuesday following fascist chants by supporters during their game with Livorno.

Afterwards, 200 Livorno fans fought with police at St Peters station in Rome.

Trouble flared at Serie B Ternana as well, where missiles were thrown from the stands at Perugia fans and police.

Ternana were fined £20,000.

The Lega Calcio are also investigating events at Messina where there was trouble during their game with Sicilian rivals Palermo.

UEFA's control and disciplinary body will meet on Friday to discuss the abandonment of the Champions League tie between Inter and Milan.

The quarter-final second leg was called off with 19 minutes to play.

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My thoughts:

Regarding the Inter-Milan game, what Interistas did was inexcusable but on the other hand I do feel that they are provoked. Again they are in the wrong, but UEFA ought to look at themselves in the mirror - now this is nothing against Milan, but surely the decisions Markus Merk made that went against Inter could not be 'coincidence' anymore. Referees are allowed to make mistakes here and there yet some make it far too often to be even considered as a coincidence, thus provoking fans into anger. We try to combat hooliganism but at the same time UEFA should try and upgrade their refereeing standards.

To be honest I like flares in stadiums but they did prove to be dangerous (Dida vs Inter Milan, Milan vs Roma last year I think and similar situations) and they are banned elsewhere. For safety reasons maybe it is high time that Italia bans flares?

Fascist chants and on some occassion rascist chants - in referring to Lazio I do not know at all what they are doing to prevent these from happening. What are the measures being taken ? Although it might prove costly to them but shouldnt Lazio warn or ban the fan groups that use fascist and rascist chants and promote such banners ? Or do something that will take them out from Lazio's listed group of fans ?

[ACMILAN1983]

I want you to explain something...

If Merk's decisions against Inter weren't a coincidence, but that is meant to mean nothing against Milan, then precisely what is it meant to mean?

that perhaps Merk has a personal issue with Inter?

[sehnsucht79]

Most interistas tell me milan plays a part in it (bribery maybe?) but then again if thats the case it could mean korea played a part in moreno's hateful decisions against italy at WC 2002 and Juventus, well, Juventus will have a string of cases against them. I'd like to think that Milan had nothing to do with it, although being realistic I think the whole world of football has been bribed, including Juve if you must .... to answer your question if Milan had nothing to do with his decisions I wouldnt know what his intentions were if his decisions were intentional, neither would I know why the other referees do it too. But fact remains that unjustified decisions do exist these days..

[ACMILAN1983]

Personally I think the world outside of what occurs on the pitch has become overly critical. I do believe that people use video evidence against a side or referee saying there is a bias or they are really poor when the referee makes a mistake as they see it on video, usually at a good angle and in slow motion, unlike the referee who has to see it all in a split second.

In the past, many mistakes were made, but the technology didn't allow for us to see it all, but now the technology is there, more mistakes are seen and therefore the refs are criticised more.

[sehnsucht79]

True and I do accept mistakes from referees but come on .... Take Moreno example for Italy vs Korea, did you honestly think he just made one too many mistakes on the day ? If he did FIFA is STILL to blame for letting such an incompetent referee to ref a world cup match. What pisses me off is that UEFA talks about combating hooliganism and everything yet they never try to improve one of the causes that triggers hooliganism - bad refereeing! (Bad as in Moreno-bad, not normal-bad) Even though hooliganism still shouldnt have happened if there was terrible refereeing but UEFA ought to fight the cause of it too, rather than hooliganism per se.

Besides we've had far too many cases of rascist chants etc esp. from Lazio and really the same problem keeps on repeating, FIGC claims they're doing something but obviously its ineffective ... These organizations always blame the fans but really, they should look at themselves in the mirror too.

[Franco6]

I don't agree with this law. Its stupid. One supporter may go in the opposing curva and throw a flair, even though after he' woun't go out alive.