Friday night, a few hours after the death of policeman Filippo Raciti outside Catania stadium, we wrote a post that ended with these words: "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." I am sorry, but maybe I was right: the decree law issued by the Government in the afternoon confirmed that in stadiums not meeting requirements of the existing law will be played only behindclosed doors matches. All waivers are not valid anymore. We are still waiting (tomorrow) the list of the games that will be played with viewers and the ones that we'll watch on TV only. A few days ago, Tv broadcaster Mediaset prosecuted Italian League because -they say- Serie A is poor, compared to last years.

In general, Italy confirms of being a country where problems are not foreseen, and at the end comes out as an emercency that has to be solved urgently. Reason is banned, especially in football. It happened in 1950, for example, when the national team travelled to Brazil for the World Cup by boat, because one year before there had been the air crash in Superga where the "Grande Torino" was cancelled. Or, from time to time, after our national team's worst defeats, we've always decided to stop signing foreign players, blaming them for our bad results. And now, this decision: it could make sense if there were big responsabilities of Italian clubs, but who authorized them to play in unsafety? Who decided that a risky match shoud have been payed at 6 pm, on Friday? The same persons that now are stopping the game. Yesterday we wrote a post against presidents, but we think everybody is appearing in a bad light.

Let's see what happens, especially which stadiums will be available fo viewers. Ther will be surely legal appeals, as some measures (preventing interdiction to dangerous people) seem to be uncostitutional. Let us be a little bit pessimistic. Next weekend we'll have Serie A again, but it won't be the same thing, for players and, most of all, for fans.

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.

Dear Olè Olè guys,
I want to know in comments area your preferences about:

1) Three 2006 top players

2) Three 2006 top teams (no matter if clubs or National teams)

3) Three 2006 significant events regarding football


I wish you a 2007 full of satisfaction, and thanks for voting!

These are my votes:

1) Ronaldinho, Henry, Buffon

2) Italy, Barcelona, O. Lyon

3) Calciopoli and Juventus' relegation, Zidane to retire after World Cup, Facchetti's death