Rules to Combat Hooliganism.

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 ?