If a stadium is against regulation, matches won't have public. People will be left far from stadiums not only as a measure after a crime has been ensured, but also as prevention. Visitors won't have anymore package of tickets. These are main measures after the meeting held this afternoon in Rome, in order to face security problems following the death of a policeman during match Catania-Palermo, last Friday.

After a brief introduction of undersecretary of Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, Mr. Giuliano Amato, Ministry for Internal Affairs, talked about the result of the meeting:
"Effective laws maust apply without waivers. We'll have people only in the stadiums which are by law: until now, first priority was the sport event, then law and order: we need to change things. So, where stadiums are against regulations, there will be only clsed-door matches. We also have to take other decisions, next Wednesday in an extraordinary council of ministers: sell of packages of tickets to visitors will cease, of course everybody will be able to buy tickets anyway. The, the DASPO (obligation for violents to sign in police stations during football matches) could be also a preventing measure and will also involve underage people. And they won't be only obliged to sign, but also will have to do some social work."

Minister of Sport, Giovanna Melandri: "Measures are severe and have no demagogy, we'll pass a decree law for the short period and other laws for medium and long period. These ones have to change radically the system, public property of stadiums and law and order management has be different: clubs will co-operate and there will be a conspicous number of stewards. Clubs will have more responsability, we want a suspension of relationships (economic, financial and occupational) between clubs and organized groups of fans. We also will create an observatory about communication in sport, we need everybody's help."

President of CONI, Gianni Petrucci, says thanks to the Government for the quick reaction. Security is our first priority, we'll be on the Government's side, we also want football to restart as soon as possible. We'll give our help to create training courses to stewards"
FIGC commissioner Pancalli confirms that football activity won't restart unless there are no security conditions. "I'm satisfied -he says- about the meeting and the choices the Government, that made good decisions. We'll co-operate and probably, if the decree law passes on Thursday, there's the possibility that next weekend championships will start again".

Well, let's consider this meeting as a first step, but we want to point out that these decisions come after a man's death. If he was still alive, we'd never had this meeting. And of course to have stadiums by law helps, but it's not enough to avoid riots: we have to repress first, then change our sport culture, the hoolingans culture has to disappear in favour of football fans culture. And we'd also like to know if clubs subscribers will be refunded if they won't be able to follow a match. People that just want to see a football match have already been damaged, we hope they won't be anymore.

After the riot in Catania last Friday, politicians and football executives said the situation was very hard but they preferred to stay on TV program talking and talking for the whole weekend. So, only this afternoon (after policeman’s funeral) they will meet to decide what will be. Another weekend without football? Maybe. And, maybe, we’ll have some closed-door matches, especially in stadiums that still don’t fit “Legge Pisanu”, the law against violence, requirements.

First of all, we think that violence is in human nature and, though now is lower than in the past, modern society is full of episodes: just yesterday, in Italy a woman has been killed by a neighbour of hers, because her dogs were too noisy. We can try to contain violence, but it’s very difficult to remove it. We think that security forces and governments can give their contribution in finding a solution, but first of all is football itself that must do its best to keep off violent people. Football –nobody in these days reminds this, except the ones that want to restart playing without new measures- is a business. If you are in a business, you don’t want people that make things more difficult to you. The US are in general more dangerous and violent than Italy, but we don’t have recently cases of incidents due to sport events: sport is money, do not disturb it!

Everybody now says: let’s do like in England. First objection: over there, stadiums are owned by clubs, in Italy are owned by municipalities, or by other public institutions like CONI (Olimpico in Rome). So, there’s a paradox: the government issues a decree law. -i.e. stadiums need some requirements- and another public organization doesn’t respect the decree, but always there’s a waiver ready to be given. So, let’s stop with all these waivers, and then install closed-circuit TV within the stadiums in order to identify the guilty parties. And, where it’s possible, see that clubs can become owner of the stadium where they play. The more responsibilities they have, the best they do to keep law and order inside and close to their “home”.

Last but not least, let’s start favouring normal and pacific people, the customers, and not the hooligans. A blogger says: “tell me why a lady of 53 -me- 155cm tall and 58 kg (the typical hooligan), going to the stadium with my sister (she is 57 and same build as I have), always have a pen, or the lighter, or a bottle cap seized, while inside close to “Ultras” seats you can find everything?” Another blogger says: “I used to work in San Siro, and during the week the hooligans could enter and bring everything inside”. This direct evidence clearly defines how the situation is. Clubs that give to the hooligans the running of their merchandising, or of the parking around the stadium, could never fight against violence. At the end, when there are riots and someone dies, they can always say they’ve been blackmailed. After all, of course.

Violence around Catania stadium

This is a derby that had to be played on a Friday night, so it didn't disturb the Sant'Agata procession. The police had to supervise the area around the stadium, in the afternoon of a working day. Outside, the situation is abnormal, and there is something similar to civil war; everybody knows how fierce the rivalry between Catania and Palermo is. Twice, the game is suspended - the footballers cannot play because of the tear gas on the ground. A policeman - police chief inspector Filippo Raciti, 38 - dies because of a crude bomb that explodes inside his car, and there are more than 100 wounded people in the Emergeny Room of Garibaldi hospital.

Well... this is not football; this is urban guerrilla warfare, the natural result of years of poor lawmaking against violence. They have been a complete failure: all the measures taken have just kept peaceful people away from the stadiums, and ended up concentrating the hooligans and people that consider football to be an excuse to give vent to their animal brutality. This afternoon, something happened at the beginning of second half when the Palermo "Ultras" arrived at the stadium, and there was a delay due to the large amount of security checks. And at the end of the game there was, as we said, the civil war. Maybe this was also due to Palermo winning with a controversial goal.

Immediately, Commissioner Pancalli decided to suspend the championships. Next Monday there will be a meeting between FIGC and the Government, but let us be a little bit skeptical; this is not the first time that someone has died because of a football match. It's sad, but it's also sad listening to the politicians saying that things like this cannot happen anymore (until next time, we say), and the football executives that suspend the championship (when we don't know how extensive this suspension could be). Of course, to stop for a day as a sign of respect for a policeman who died is correct, but they want football to be stopped until they find an ABSOLUTE solution. They want to reflect, and maybe stop all the championhips for the whole year. And then? When their false indignation has finished, nobody will think about this anymore. Especially the people that now are crying, who yesterday were arguing and shouting at the TV for a penalty or an off-side.

Unfortunately, nobody in Italy thinks about the football fan - the customer, paying a lot of money to watch the game. Are the violent people a minority? Yes, but don't worry, they do their best to make it impossibile for pacific people to go to the stadiums. Nominal tickets, prohibition to sell tickets at the stadium the day of the match, personal inspections to everybody going into the stadium. And all the while the violent never go to jail, and just keep on fighting the police all around.

As fans, we think that things cannot really change unless they focus on heavy punishments to the perpetrators of violence. For too long a time, the stadiums have been a free zone, where the laws do not apply, and they continue to be. Violence in football could be solved with cameras that identify the guilty parties, and with more stewards, and less policemen if possible (on several occassions, violence erupts because of clashesh between the police and hooligans). But we bet that the executives will think long and hard, and still do nothing effective. In the end, maybe they will decide that it will be possible to watch football only on TV; on the channels they own, of course.

Looking at “Renzo Barbera” Stadium in Palermo, and all the streets around at about 7 pm, it was clear that Palermo-Inter would have been the main event in the long history of the “pink and black” team. Unfortunately for Palermo, the match was the most beautiful of the season, but Inter deserved the victory even more than it was at the end (2-1).

After Juventus' relegation, there are four teams that can compete with the Milanese in a single match: AS Roma, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Palermo. Well, it has been 12 points for the “nerazzurri” against them and – except for the derby - all matches were away. Tonight, in front of about 40,000 in attendance, with no empty seats and viewers in more than 180 countries watching the game on TV, Palermo was one of the starts in a spectacular “Sunday Night” match. Mancini made the surprising choice of playing Adriano ahead of Crespo. Cruz and Dacourt for Inter, and Biava and Di Michele for Palermo were injured, and among the Sicilians' starting 11 was the young defender Paolo Hernan Dellafiore, an Italo-Argentinean that Palermo signed last Summer, coming from Inter in exchange for Grosso.

After six minutes, Ibrahimovic shot from 30 meters and Palermo’s goalie Fontana (four years at Inter) made a big mistake, letting the ball pass under his hip: 1-0 for Inter. Palermo is suffering, and Inter have incredible ball possession, and then Adriano, after a chip pass from Ibra, comes very close to scoring the second goal, but his strike is out. Minute 45, a cross from the left, a header by Bresciano, and Amauri scores with a volley that hits the goal-post and goes in: 1-1. Maybe Materazzi could have been closer to the Brazilian striker, but his mistake is just a spot on his perfect first half. In the beginning of second half, the two scorers have to leave for an injury, Crespo and Caracciolo replace them. Adriano shows that, when he plays for the team and not for himself, he’s the valuable player we used to know. The problem is that, after his long absence, he cannot run for 90 minutes, but the injury of Ibra complicated Mancini’s plan.

Materazzi hits the same goal-post of Amauri, but he’s not as lucky as him and Corini saves on the line. An Inter counter-attack gives a new advantage to the “nerazzurri” at minute 60’ with French captain Vieira. Palermo is KO, but in the last five minutes Inter suffers and Caracciolo hits another goal-post, but it’s not enough and Inter wins. The MVP is Dejan Stankovic: a wall, not a midfielder!
Now the ranking says: Inter 33, Roma 29, Palermo 27.

Sampdoria-Roma in the name of Totti. The AS Roma captain runs twice with a thumb in his mouth (his way to exult for a goal after his baby’s birth) to celebrate his double to Sampdoria. The “blucerchati” just try to resist, but at halftime Roma is already ahead 3-1, with its leader in a very good shape. Final score is 4-2 for the “red and yellow” team. Everybody in “Ferraris Stadium” clapped to Totti’s second goal (a fantastic volley from the left), even Sampdoria fans: after today’s match the discussion about his refusal to play for Italian National Team is still open. In fact, Totti dedicated his two goals to Platini and Matarrese (Italian League Chairman) that recently criticized his choice. We think that – though National Team should not be refused by anybody - Totti has the right to say no, but at the same time coach Donadoni has the right not to call him once he’s ready. Anyway, now AS Roma is second in the Serie A rankings, and nobody could bet a single Euro for the final win of a third team which is not Inter Milan or Roma.

After the “Calciopoli” scandal, that sent Juventus to “Serie B” and gave an 8 point penalty to AC Milan, everybody claimed Inter Milan would be the team to win the Italian League. The overall opinion is that only AS Roma of World Champions Totti, De Rossi and Perrotta can cause problems to the “nerazzurri”, while all other teams will fight for third place.

On the contrary, after day 12 Inter is on the top with 9 wins and 3 draws, but on the second step of the podium we don’t find the Romans, but the “pink & black” jerseys of Palermo, just 3 points below Mancini’s team. Obviously “Renzo Barbera” Stadium is sold out for Palermo-Inter, the main game of day 13 scheduled for tomorrow, November 26th at 3pm (GMT +1): 850.000 Euros at the box office, a record for Palermo! Everybody is crazy, and the 37,000 seats capacity of the stadium won’t be enough to satisfy the huge amount of requests from the whole Sicily, and the rest of Southern Italy. No problem, it will be possible to follow the match live in two different pay TV Stations (Sky and Mediaset) and a couple of Web TVs.

Inter went through the “Final 16” of the Champions League last Wednesday, after winning a home match against Sporting Lisbon, while Palermo has been heavily defeated by Fenerbache, in a UEFA Cup match where its main players took a rest. Missing tomorrows match because of a "red card", just midfielder Fabio Simplicio played in Istanbul. Chairman Zamparini gave the media a very optimistic forecast: "Palermo will win 4-1" he said. On the other side, World Champion Fabio Grosso keeps a good memory of the two years spent in Sicily, but now he wants to win at Inter. By the way, the Milanese team, after being assigned the "Scudetto" by the Italian FA last July because of the relegation of Juventus, has quickly become the most hated one in the country, replacing the "black and white" of Turin. That's why everybody but the Inter fans root for Palermo tomorrow. Especially people around Juventus - like Del Piero - hope that finally the Sicilians will win the championship. Coach Guidolin says "thanks", but we bet he is not thinking of the “scudetto”, focusing just on the match vs. Inter. Will David defeat Goliath tomorrow? Let’s wait and see…