World Cup Qualifiers: Italy fans should be stopped from supporting the world champions abroad after minor trouble during their 0-0 draw in Bulgaria over the weekend, the head of the Italian football association said this morning.
A group of Italy fans made fascist salutes and threw bottles at Bulgaria supporters before World Cup qualifying Group Eight match in Sofia. Three supporters were also arrested for burning a Bulgarian flag.
"We will not ask for any more tickets for Italy matches abroad," Giancarlo Abete told Radio Anch'io.
The hard line, which must be agreed with the government, follows several years of crowd trouble within Italy which has led to heavy restrictions on away travel for league matches.
The Republic of Ireland travel to Italy on April 1st of next year with the return match in Dublin taking place in October.
"I feel great bitterness and pain for what has happened," added Abete. "Everyone knows the process to isolate these individuals is long but this is a dark episode. I believe with all the technological means available we can now identify those individuals.
"I don't believe they are fans but individuals who are prone to delinquent behaviour with the intention of damaging the image of our nation. But we have all of their names and we will punish them."
Italy partly missed out on holding the Euro 2012 championship because of their hooligan problem but Abete said not every fan was culpable.
"We need to see if some people got in without tickets. I'm sorry because most of the people among the 144 (Italy fans) present in the stadium had nothing to do with this disorder," he said.
Security is being stepped up for Wednesday's home qualification game with Montenegro in Lecce.
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