So...what's been going on in Genoa??

[Manx Blue]

Just heard that Italy get a 3-0 win because of the trouble.

That'll learn 'em!

don't know if i agree with that ,after all the italians are at home so security is down to them ,like i mentioned earlier how the fcuk did the serbs get the flares ,etc into the ground ,Italian football needs to have a long hard look to get their house in order as does the serbs,turks,greek,etc etc
just waiting for "rai uno" news report coming up

Flares in Italin football grounds are normal, most games have flares being lit at some point or other. Italian football suffers quite badly from head in the sand syndrome and it goes back a long way. Most people consider England to have been teh biggest hooligan presence of Italia 1990, but on the night Italy lost to Argentina, more italian fans were arrested in one night that England fasn arrested during the whole tournament

That's part of the problem...UEFA have plenty of stuff regarding 25 man squads, transfer windows, drug testing etc. But when it comes to crowd safety, their rules, guidelines & control systems are different for every country. What we do here should be uniform (pardon the pun) in other countries fir their leading league and Uefa games.

[DoomMerchant]

diving, cheating Italians!

cheers

[paulh]

in regards to earlier post the reason the goalkeeper got hit with something is due to him moving from red star belgrade to partizan belgrade a big no no in serbia.

[CityFanFromRome]

cityfanfromrome what i don't get is what the hell happens when you get to an italian stadium ??do the fans not get searched ??how did they (serbs) get so many smoke bombs or flares into the ground ??

actually they should be searched, it's something that I can't understand, how normal people is searched and even plastic water bottles are taken away, but some always manage to bring flares, smoke bombs, knives and things like those into the stadium, it really baffles me. I suspect that at least part of the police is lenient toward the organized groups of fans and let them bring in anything they want, I don't have another explanation for it.

Ironically, just this year it was issued a card for fans to identify them, besides the name on the ticket which had been in place for a couple years, and without that card you can't buy tickets for an away game. Needless to say most organized groups all over Italy are against this, and prefer not going to away matches that to have to give their personal data to the Internal Affairs Ministry for this card. Even the Bayern Munich fans had a banner against it in the Bayern-Roma CL game, lol, and last night will only prove that if the police doesn't know how to prevent or react to situations like these, any card or name on the ticket won't stop the violence in stadiums.

Just heard that Italy get a 3-0 win because of the trouble.

That'll learn 'em!

And Serbia is thrown out of the qualifications, from what I've heard, but I could be mistaken.

Those coppers looked well tooled up so I don't see the problem. They should've carried on with the game and when it started, waded in and started cracking some skulls. A few baton rounds and some serious aerosol mace would've sorted it, and with a few returned smoke bombs and flares they'd have been crying in the cheap seats.

Those I'ties need to get some Nuts!!!

Problem is that some years ago the police did exactly that to stop some people devastating Genoa during a G8 and a student died because of it, Carlo Giuliani,and there has been a lot of protests against the police because of that, some policemen even had to defend themselves in trial, etc. so I guess they didn't want to risk a repeat of that. I, for one, would have suspended the game, sent the Italian fans home, closed the TV transmission and only then would have ordered the policemen to start hitting the Serbian fans. Doing that in front of the cameras would have only led to trouble for the police afterwards.

I agree, though, that UEFA regulations for safety in the grounds should be the same all across Europe, and I have to say that I admire the English game for having stadiums without barriers between the pitch and the stands, with stands much nearer to the pitch than in Italy too, but something like last night never happens, or at least I've never seen it. also, I think the UEFA delegates should grow a pair and in cases like these they should not even have the game start, they should take the matter into their own hands and call the game off.

[john@staustell]

Roma mate - English stadia were like this in the late 70s and early 80s and it is appalling firstly that the Italians have buried their heads in the sand and refuse to adopt English methods, and secondly that UEFA is more interested in dreaming up financial rules to maintain it's cosy cartel than addressing this serious problem.

The introduction of all-seat stadia, not withstanding the affection felt by some on here for terraces, was the cornerstone of a new policy after the disasters of the 80s. It led to safer stadia and the return of the family, and ever-increasing attendances, money and therefore TV rights. The dinosaur that is Italian football has a model to follow in England, they just limit themselves to bashing a few visiting fans over the head with batons.

All seat stadia
Known ticketholders
CCTV can focus on every seat
Police intelligence together with opponents removes known troublemakers
EFFECTIVE searching, with no flares, wirecutters or masks

Sure we all loved the old punch-ups and Stanley knife fights I had as well, but it is insanity. Once you get the terrace situation it becomes a pitched battle, like Heysel and like last night's Serbian section.

Madness. Avoidable madness.

[Blue Since 76]

Italian football's in a mess, with too much power held by ultras, which allows things like last night to happen, even though that wasn't Italian fans. English football is generally much better, but there are still some idiots who seem to prefer the off pitch activities

However, people in glass houses etc - I distinctly remember the rags bringing a flare into the ground for the CC semi last season. Yes, it was only one, as it's not something usually done over here, but it can still happen.

[Blue Since 76]

just turned to "rai uno "tryin to catch up with this but can't understand a lot of whats been goin on ,seen some images of the serbs fans and noticed maybe 10 were wearing colors the rest looked like fcuking headcases they are ,
remember last year the frog who got done in belgrade thoses fcuking serbs are a disgrace to europe i hope uefa take action and ban the fcukers for a few years ,clubs & country,
then again i don't know if it wasn't the "i ties"who were at fault ,this story is not finished

Good job they weren't playing Nigeria?

[CityFanFromRome]

Roma mate - English stadia were like this in the late 70s and early 80s and it is appalling firstly that the Italians have buried their heads in the sand and refuse to adopt English methods, and secondly that UEFA is more interested in dreaming up financial rules to maintain it's cosy cartel than addressing this serious problem.

The introduction of all-seat stadia, not withstanding the affection felt by some on here for terraces, was the cornerstone of a new policy after the disasters of the 80s. It led to safer stadia and the return of the family, and ever-increasing attendances, money and therefore TV rights. The dinosaur that is Italian football has a model to follow in England, they just limit themselves to bashing a few visiting fans over the head with batons.

All seat stadia
Known ticketholders
CCTV can focus on every seat
Police intelligence together with opponents removes known troublemakers
EFFECTIVE searching, with no flares, wirecutters or masks

Sure we all loved the old punch-ups and Stanley knife fights I had as well, but it is insanity. Once you get the terrace situation it becomes a pitched battle, like Heysel and like last night's Serbian section.

Madness. Avoidable madness.

I agree that Italian football should follow the English example. Of the five points you mentioned we only have the first two in place at the moment. On paper, the last one should be in place too, but as you saw last night, the searching, if it happens at all, is far from being effective.

[Bluez]

Italian football's in a mess, with too much power held by ultras, which allows things like last night to happen, even though that wasn't Italian fans. English football is generally much better, but there are still some idiots who seem to prefer the off pitch activities

However, people in glass houses etc - I distinctly remember the rags bringing a flare into the ground for the CC semi last season. Yes, it was only one, as it's not something usually done over here, but it can still happen.

The difference was that he was then on the front pages of newspapers, identified and banned. In Italy, they claim its a bit of pssion and no problem.

[Socrates]

Cripes. Serbian tennis fans are scary enough, can only imagine what the football supporters are like :O(

[Nick]

You can also counter that with the success in Germany with standing sections.

It is true that having seats stops trouble and that is why the clubs are so against standing down, because each seat is caught on cctv, but they could also do this for standing sections, in which people are somehow allocated a seat/place.

I find it crazy the level of hooliganism in alot of other european countries, and how fans have to be miles away from the pitch and have barriers etc. Yet it is England fans who have the worst name.. . .

It is also true that UEFA etc. should concentrate on this rather than bureaucratic transfer/financial rules to try and protect their cartel.

[The Foggy Blue]

It is also true that UEFA etc. should concentrate on this rather than bureaucratic transfer/financial rules to try and protect their cartel.

Bang on.

[Dameerto]

The turning point was making clubs responsible for the actions of their fans, with the threat of sanctions for persistant trouble. Before, English clubs would wring their hands, shrug their shoulders, then walk away.