ROME, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has
promised drastic measures to confront soccer violence after clashes
by rampaging fans at a top level match left a policeman dead and as
many as 150 people injured.
Prodi was forced to intervene as Italy's football stadiums fell
silent on Saturday with all play in the country's leagues suspended
indefinitely after the nation's second soccer-related death in a
week.
'We cannot continuously put the lives of police officers at risk
and need a remedy that makes soccer clubs feel responsible (for
fans' actions) and radically changes the situation,' Prodi told
reporters in Bologna.
He and top Italian sports officials convened a series of high-level
meetings to hammer out emergency measures to curb future
hooliganism.
But a quick resumption of matches appeared unlikely with Interior
Minister Giuliano Amato saying he would no longer send his police
force to matches under existing conditions.
'Enough is enough,' he told Italian television. 'Violence is
everywhere, but violence in the stadiums connected to a game -- I
find that truly unacceptable.'
Rowdy brawls at football matches in Italy are not uncommon. But
images of hundreds of hooded rioters hurling flares and
firecrackers at Friday's Serie A match in Catania sparked a wave of
outrage in Italy, with Italian media calling it a shameful disgrace
for a nation that brought home the World Cup last year.
The latest violence is also a blow for Italy's bid to host the 2012
European Championships -- with La Stampa newspaper calling for
Italy to withdraw from the race now.
'VICIOUS CIRCLE'
Trouble at Friday's match between Palermo and Catania began with
smoke -- partly from tear gas outside the stadium -- suspending
play for a half hour.
Violent clashes between rioters and the police lasted for hours
after the game, during which a large firecracker exploded in
38-year old police officer Filippo Raciti's face. He died as he
arrived at hospital.
The death came just six days after a club official died in a fight
after an amateur match in the southern town of Luzzi.
'You can't be allowed to kill a policeman and leave two children as
orphans just because you think you have the right to root for your
team,' Salvatore Renda, a policeman who was wounded last night told
Italian television.
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC), which has indefinitely
suspended all games, called for a moment of silence on Saturday and
Sunday. Italy's international friendly against Romania in Siena on
Wednesday has been called off.
The Italian Olympic Committee, one of Italian sport's governing
bodies, will hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday to discuss the
situation. Prodi will meet top ministers on Monday, while Amato is
expected to address Parliament on Tuesday.
Pressure is building for tough steps to tackle the problem. The
president of the Italian Footballers' Association, Sergio Campana
called for the leagues to be halted for at least a year.
His suggestion -- though unlikely to be followed -- would at least
give Italian clubs the chance to modernise their old-fashioned
stadiums to bring them into line with those in other top European
leagues.
Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastien Frey says he is not surprised by
the violence.
'There had already been several incidents with the referees last
summer,' the Frenchman told sports daily L'Equipe on Saturday. 'Now
violence is back around the stadiums.'
'If we go on like this people will not come to the stadiums. We are
in a vicious circle.'
Raciti was the 13th person to be killed in or around Italy's
football stadiums since 1962. The last fatality at a Serie A match
happened in 1995 when a Genoa fan was stabbed to death before a
game against AC Milan.
