Minister for Sport Andrea Abodi warns ‘those who participate in delinquent behaviour lose their status as football fans’ after Roma and Napoli supporters were hit with a travel ban.
The ugly clashes on the A1 motorway last week between Napoli ultras on their way to Genoa and Roma ultras heading for Milan has wide-reaching repercussions for the rest of the Calcio world.
The Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi announced today that Roma and Napoli fans would be banned from travelling to away games for two months.
It is only the first step in what could be a larger clampdown on the ultras factions who have caused many problems in the past.
“Those who participate in delinquent behaviour lose their status as football fans,” said Minister for Sport Abodi at an event in Paris.
However, he also reiterated that the issue of violence in Italian football has already been improved, although it has mainly moved outside the arenas.
“The efforts of the last few years have seen a drastic reduction in the problems of violence and its negative effect within stadiums, which rarely see violent behaviour, even though we must not lower our guard.
“As for what happens outside the stadium, I have very clear thoughts on the matter: anyone who becomes violent and engages in delinquency loses his status as a football fan. I struggle to even call them fans, because to me they are no longer in that dimension.
“Clubs are well aware of that, I hope there can be even closer collaboration to create a clear distinction between fans and delinquents.”
There has been an increasing irritation between the majority of fans in stadiums and the ultras, as shown by an incident when Inter supporters were harassed and physically attacked to get them out of the Curva during a game to pay tribute to one of the ultras leaders who had been killed.
The leader had spent most of his life in prison, was shot in an ambush between drug dealing gangs and was unknown to most of those fans who had bought their tickets for the game.