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The Outsider: Italy needs the English treatment for hooliganism as Uefa linger

By Paul Angelo Sampson ⋅ April 19, 2007 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Observing the Easter fixtures from the US has been an alien experience given that there is no public holiday here over that weekend. Many companies allow their employees to finish early on Good Friday but work resumes bright and early on Monday whether you’re one of the lucky ones or not.

If you’re wondering how a country takes an entire day off work to celebrate George Bush as President (Yes, it’s called President’s Day) but Jesus rises from the dead and they finish at three, then consider that perhaps it really is more ‘miraculous’ that George “Dubya” Bush became President Geroge “Dubya” Bush than it is that Jesus rose from the dead.

Thankfully the games were readily accessible and we were treated to another glorious few days of drama and tension, which, coupled with the Champions League results that followed and this weekend’s FA Cup scores, could point to a tumultuous season’s end.

With a treble and a quadruple the prize, United and Chelsea potentially meeting in the Champions League final as well as the FA Cup final and going head to head for the league on it’s penultimate day, this season could be one for the history books.

Of course, it is by far a foregone conclusion. Once AC Milan conquered Bayern and Liverpool meted out a cursory victory over moderate Dutch opponents, one couldn’t help but wonder if the god’s had an altogether different plan in mind for us, a plan we have seen played out before. Whatever the outcome, we will be truly spoiled over the coming months. When the least mouth-watering prospect facing us is a Chelsea versus AC Milan final, life can only be so bad.

One hopes that, if indeed Liverpool or Chelsea do end up facing the Italians, that the scenes that marred the games in Rome and in Manchester are avoided. Moreover, Italian football is in such dire need of a period of considered introspection that it should perhaps be forced upon them if it is not delivered voluntarily. Uefa repeatedly state that police forces and governing bodies across Europe should learn from the way the English handle opposing fans and potentially explosive meetings but, had our league not been banned from European competition as it was, would anything really have changed in England? It took for 39 lives to be lost in Heysel before English football recognised it had totally underestimated the consequences of it’s lack of action or recognition of the problem.

To this day hooliganism exists in English football, it is on a far smaller scale than before but 20 years of improvements have not totally eradicated the problem. Italian football is going down the very same road and the fear is that another set of fans, Italian or otherwise may soon lose their lives before Italian football acts responsibly. Already a policeman has been shot dead by fans, their top clubs have received enormous penalties for match fixing only for them to be overturned or reduced and the blinkered behaviour needs to stop.

Michel Platini, Uefa’s new president, was on the pitch that night in Heysel playing for Juventus and he, more than most, should be aware of the consequences of turning a blind eye now. We can only hope that the political nature of his job does not coerce him into subversion on this issue.

The Premiership is now the best league in the world in terms of the quality and pace of football played, the atmosphere in the grounds, and the commercial potential it possesses. All of these attributes have some of their roots in the post-Heysel reforms.

This time football cannot wait for a tragedy before it acts. If Italian teams were banned from the most profitable competitions in the world until they got things together properly you would soon see a turnaround in the actions of the clubs and the fans. This is without doubt. If they were banned until they could prove that they had righted their wrongs in the manner the world expects, whether that is for one month or two years, then we would all be left with nothing to focus on except the masterful way their top teams execute our beautiful game. Italian football’s flair and proficiency is in no doubt. It is just a shame it is clouded by the actions of the fans and the inaction of it’s governing body.

Clearly, many other European leagues and sets of fans are also riddled with problems. We have all witnessed the racism in Spain and Russia where black players are sometimes subjected to the same ridicule and taunting that Messrs Blisset and Barnes, to name but a few, suffered from over 20 years ago in England. However, the corruption that is rife in Serie A and the Italian Football Federation sets their case apart at this time. In medicine when a body doesn’t act at all it is shocked back in to life, or at least the attempt is made. Italian football is in cardiac arrest and Uefa needs to be on hand with the defibrillator.

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