Foxes guarding the henhouse

On my most recent entry on soccer violence in Europe (Italy in particular), I noted with amazement: When I go to games at Gillette Stadium near Boston, I can't bring in a bottle of soda with me from the outside. Even seat cushions can only be brought in after they're checked by security. But Italians, with a history of crowd trouble, can bring flares into stadia without any problem.

The BBC's Phil Gordos sheds some light on this puzzle.

The authorities have an increasingly hard time keeping them [extremist 'Ultras' groups] in check, so much so that the police refuse to enter the "curvas", the areas in a ground where the ultras congregate. There is even evidence the ultras control entry to their part of the stadium, hence the reason so many flares and fireworks end up in the ground. [emphasis mine].

Gordos is not the only one to note the excessive influence of the ultras, some of whom are unabashed fascists (such as the guy who left disparaging notes to me in this entry)

Matt Williams of the BBC gives a chilling account of a game spent among the Juventus ultras.

James Richardson of The Guardian said he once asked an Italian policeman regularly assigned to stadium duty what the story was. He admitted that the police avoid entering Ultra territory for fear of provoking a riot. If they ever do go in (say, if English fans are present) then it's with full body armour and truncheons to crack some heads, but this is rare. Many in Italy feel the "English model" - numbered seats and club stewards backed by officers quietly identifying and removing troublemakers - is the solution; but to introduce it would mean ending the power of the Ultra groups, and that won't be easy.

Soccer violence used to be fairly common in England. But the twin tragedies of English soccer at Heysel and Hillsborough provoked a revolution in the way British authorities dealt with crowd control (even though Hillsborough was caused by overcrowding not violence).

Now, attending a match in England is much safer than in much of continental Europe. But that was because both the government and the governing body of soccer had the will to deal with the problem.

Only a day after the shameful debacle in Milan, there were also problems in Turin at the Juventus-Liverpool match. Two European home matches of Roma (the club I support) were marred by problems: one by a brawl involving players, officials and even fans. Another was abandonned when a fan threw a coin that badly cut the referee.

All English clubs were banned from European competition for five years after Heysel. MLSNet's Tino Palace wonders when anyone will deal with this disaster waiting to happen. At what point is it time for a hard-line punishment for Italian clubs? Do we have to wait for a higher body count? I say no, it's time to ban the Italians for one year. Give the country's governing body (and government) a year to get its house in order. This is getting ridiculous.

I concur. But this won't happen. The European governing body UEFA treats some countries differently than others. The Italian League is reputed as one of the top two in Europe. England, on the other hand, is treated patronizingly as the red neck cousin that no one wants to acknowledge. They don't play 'real' soccer and their fans are 'savages.' That's the stereotype, anyway, even though most neutrals would rather watch an English Premiership game over a Serie A game in a heartbeat.

But soccer is like that. Countries like Guinea and Kenya have been suspended by the world governing body FIFA for political interference in the affairs of soccer. Yet such meddling goes on in Brazil as well but FIFA would never dare do anything to Brazil than offer empty threats.

Sadly, UEFA won't do anything until the next Heysel.