After a weekend of Italian domestic soccer filled with crowd violence, yesterday's European Champions League quarterfinal between AC Milan and city rivals Inter was stopped in the 2nd half due to... crowd violence. The Milan keeper was hit in the shoulder by a bottle and flares littered the field.
I've already ranted on the idiocy of crowd violence (here). But here's one thing I don't get.
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.
Huh?
Update: The Guardian's James Richardson has an excellent piece on the excessive influence of hard core Ultras thugs in Italian soccer. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (who happens to be the owner of AC Milan) has promised action by his government on violence in soccer. It will certainly be nice to see him taking action to protect ordinary Italians rather than his own political future for once.
Further update: MLSNet's Tino Palace suggests that if all English clubs could be banned from European continental for five years after the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, then one year European ban against Italian clubs is not inappropriate. In the same Champions League season, a match in Rome had to be abandoned because of the stupid actions of some Roma fans (full disclosure: I'm a supporter of the club). Even the day after the Milan mess, there were problems in Turin surrounding the Juventus-Liverpool match. And that's not even taking into account all the crap going on at domestic matches. But this won't happen. It's ok to pick on English clubs based on a reputation that has been outdated for a decade. English clubs are seen as the redneck cousins of the more sophisticated continental sides and thus deserving of scorn solely for that.
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