Juventus v Parma Cancelled

The match has been called off following the death of a fan. Victim was hit by coach. Early reports say that this is not related to hooliganism. Match called off by police. Udinese v Fiorentina on Channel Five instead.

Apparently tensions were rising. 27-year-old Parma fan hit by Juventus' supporters coach. Driver stopped two miles on and wasn't aware he had even hit him. Bothteams decided not right circumstances to play the match.

Gorkan Inler - Swiss international -scored great goal Udinese 1 Fiorentina 0. Motolivio unlucky as shot hit post with keeper well beaten.

What's the situation regarding this death?

All I have heard is that they were stressing that it was an accident. The driver apparently didn't even know that he had hit the guy until stopped by police two miles later. The police decided that it would not be appropriate to play the match in the circumstances. It was reported that it was not connected to hooliganism although they did say that tensions were rising. I think they cancelled the match a a precaution to assure fans that lessons had been learned from the incident and lack of sensitivity regarding the death of the Lazio fan earlier in the season. Posters in Italty or following Italy should have more info on this. I guesss it would be well-covered in Italian media.

EMP wrote:All I have heard is that they were stressing that it was an accident. The driver apparently didn't even know that he had hit the guy until stopped by police two miles later. The police decided that it would not be appropriate to play the match in the circumstances. It was reported that it was not connected to hooliganism although they did say that tensions were rising. I think they cancelled the match a a precaution to assure fans that lessons had been learned from the incident and lack of sensitivity regarding the death of the Lazio fan earlier in the season. Posters in Italty or following Italy should have more info on this. I guesss it would be well-covered in Italian media.

Good decision by everyone involved... they did not want to risk rumours spreading and the incident turning into something ugly like what happened in Rome.

It has just been reported on Seteants Sports News that the coach was turning round when it hit him and that there had been minor scuffles between rival supporters. When the reason for postponing the match was announced at the Stadio delle Alpe all supporters accepted the decision and left without incident.

EMP wrote:It has just been reported on Seteants Sports News that the coach was turning round when it hit him and that there had been minor scuffles between rival supporters. When the reason for postponing the match was announced at the Stadio delle Alpe all supporters accepted the decision and left without incident.

You mean all 5 of them?

Come on Bluey, you know there were at least 6.

Sadness and censure as violence blights the Scudetto again

For the second time in recent months, the weekend's Serie A fixtures were overshadowed by tragedy
--------------------------------

Once again the weekend's matches must take a back seat. Yesterday, less than five months after Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri was shot dead by a policeman, 27-year-old Parma supporter Matteo Bagnaresi was run over and killed as he made his way to the Ducali's game against Juventus.

At first Bagnaresi's death was reported as a road accident, but subsequent testimonies from those present suggest something less straightforward. Precise details remain disputed but it has been established that Bagnaresi was run over by a coach carrying around 25 Juventus fans, on the forecourt of the Crocetta autogrill - a service station not far from Turin. He died at the scene.

From there, accounts differ. According to the Juventus fans on the coach, Bagnaresi was part of a gang of at least 100 Parma Ultras - a group known as Boys Parma 1977 - who arrived at the service station shortly after them, and promptly set upon them with belts and glass bottles. In a panic, coach driver Siro Spolti apparently started the engine and made to flee the scene. Bagnaresi is said to have stepped in front of the bus in a bid to stop it, but Spolti did not see him in time. Alerted to what had happened but fearing reprisals if he stopped, Spolti drove a further 700m up the road before calling the police.

The Boys have since called this sequence of events into doubt, releasing a statement denying that either group of fans were armed, and claiming that no fighting took place. The Parma president Tommaso Ghirardi has thrown his two cents in, stating that he saw no broken glass when he visited the scene later in the day and insisting that "ours is a well-behaved support".

But smashed bottles were found at the scene, while the Juventus fans involved were only too ready to show off their injuries to reporters. Bagnaresi's death may not have been intended, but it was, ultimately, the result of yet another incident of fan violence.

"It was quite liberating to believe that it was just a road accident - to be able to say, yet again, that it was nothing to do with football," sighs La Repubblica's Maurizio Crosetti today, before going on to warn against making a martyr of Bagnaresi. "When a young man dies there is always sadness, and a comforting arm for the parents. But the risk is that we don't want to look properly at what happened, and that we use rhetoric to create martyrs where people aren't martyrs. Gabriele Sandri was not a boy scout. Matteo Bagnaresi was at his first away game after a three-year ban. Groups of Ultras go to stadiums to fight and to the service station to menace, assault, rob and bother everyone."

The difficulties in balancing the sense of sadness with a degree of condemnation for the fans involved is perhaps best summed up by the juxtaposition of headlines on pages two and three of today's Gazzetta. Opposite Vincenzo Martucci's piece: "Matteo, the fan with a degree who worked for social welfare", sits Giampiero Timossi's article: "Ultra killed by a coach".

It would be insensitive to dwell on the actions of Bagnaresi specifically, and Crosetti's reference to Sandri seems both unnecessary and inflammatory, but he is right to assert that trouble between travelling supporters at service stations needs to be taken seriously. Efforts to improve safety at matches over the past two seasons are beginning to bear fruit - figures released on Friday showed there have been 15% fewer injuries among fans, 8% fewer arrests and 62% fewer policemen injured at stadiums than in the corresponding period of last season, but behaviour outside the stadiums is far harder to control. Incidents like yesterday's only fuel concern that troublemakers are simply picking their fights elsewhere.

"The violent types have moved, and they decided that the battle ground is no longer the terrace but a square near the stadium, or the maze of streets around it," continues Crosetti. "But even there they find too high a risk of being stopped, so it's better to play gladiators in the service station with belts, bats, knives and bottles. Given that it is impossible to militarise these public places, one can only hope that everything will end well and that the damage sheet will be limited to a few broken windows, to some emptied shelves. Or at least that deaths will be avoided."

In truth, skirmishes similar to those that preceded the deaths of Bagnaresi and Sandri have been happening in Italy for years, and it is hard to say whether such incidents are on the rise or we are simply seeing the inevitable consequence of a long-running trend. Either way, practical solutions are hard to come by. Police have called for an outright ban on all fans travelling to away games for "at least a prolonged period", but even in the context of a season when some teams' support have faced travelling bans on a weekly basis, such a move seems absurdly draconian. Even most non-Ultras can see the danger inherent in draining the atmosphere from stadiums altogether.

In the immediate term the decision to postpone yesterday's game between Juventus and Parma was a good one, as was the decision to hold silences before the rest of the day's Serie A fixtures. For all the frustration felt by individual fans, many of whom travel a long way to see Juventus in particular, the league could not afford any repeat of the rioting that followed Sandri's death. Although the circumstances surrounding that incident were plainly more inflammatory, details of yesterday's tragedy were patchy ahead of kick-off, and unsubstantiated rumour has a way of catching fans' imaginations.

By taking these steps, the league also ensured that every other game did take place. Roma and Inter had already played - both drawing 1-1 - on Saturday, but arguably the more enjoyable fixtures took place on Sunday afternoon. Udinese kept the race for fourth place alive, moving to within three points of Fiorentina with an impressive and thoroughly deserved 3-1 win over the Viola, while Sampdoria are just one point behind them after winning 2-0 at Empoli.

Most impressive of all, however, was Atalanta's 2-1 win at Milan. After an exhilarating start to the season, Luigi Del Neri's side have endured a tougher time in 2008, and came into yesterday's game having won just two of their last nine. There is talent in this Atalanta squad though, as well as a commendable attacking intent. Having stormed into a two-goal half-time lead through Sergio Floccari and Antonio Langella, they continued to press and were unlucky not to make it three when Ferreira Pinto skied his effort from close range. In the end, Fernando Coppola had to save an Andrea Pirlo penalty to secure all three points, but he duly did and Atalanta climbed to ninth. With just seven games to go, Milan slip to sixth.

Paolo Bandini

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/03/31/sadness_and_censure_as_violenc.html