'Ultra' violence goes far beyond football

Fan trouble in Italy:Italian football is again in the dock. In the wake of last Sunday's killing of Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri, shot by a policeman after a fight broke out between Lazio and Juventus fans at an autostrada garage, some highly worrisome considerations have returned to haunt not just the Italian Football Federation but also Italian society at large.

In recent years, Italian football has had its winning image repeatedly besmirched.

On the pitch, Italian teams continue to prove themselves among the best in the world; Italy are the current reigning world champions and AC Milan the reigning European champions.

Off the pitch, though, the story is much sadder. The deaths of Vincenzo Spagnolo (Milan fan knifed in Genoa in January 1995) and Sergio Ercolano (Napoli fan killed during riots prior to an Avellino-Napoli derby in September 2003) were just the most obvious expressions of a terrible, creeping malaise.

Violence was on the increase and football authorities seemed unable to do anything about it.

Three seasons ago, things seemed to touch an all-time low when, in the space of eight months, three big games (the AS Roma v Lazio derby, as well as Roma v Dinamo Kiev and Inter v AC Milan in the Champions League) were suspended because of fan violence.

The point of no return, however, appeared to come last February when police inspector Filippo Raciti was killed during a full-scale riot prior to the Serie A Sicilian derby between Catania and Palermo. In the wake of that and under pressure from the centre-left government, the Italian Federation introduced "draconian" measures.

Security at stadia was greatly tightened. Tickets could no longer be bought in blocks; for every ticket bought there had to be a name and an identity document. Computerised turnstiles were introduced, forcing some stadia to close temporarily and others to reduce capacity. Banners had to have official authorisation. A new measure made it possible, acting on closed-circuit TV footage, to arrest violent "fans" up to 48 hours after the game in question.

Furthermore, the "Osservatorio", the football intelligence unit comprising administrators and police, was given powers to change kick-off times, enforce a "behind closed doors" ruling and ban away fans from travelling if and when it deemed a match to be "high risk".

To some extent, all of this seemed to be paying off. So far this season, violent incidents seemed to be declining - arrests were down, the overall police presence was reduced by 30 per cent and the numbers of police injured at games has gone down by 80 per cent.

Two weeks ago, a traditionally "hot" game like the Rome derby passed off in front of a full house without incident. The positive signs were an illusion, however.

The stadium was quieter, but only because the hard-line fans had opted to move the battle elsewhere - to the streets, roads and service stations, as on last Sunday.

Last month, a senior policeman claimed there were 268 "politicised" groups of "ultra" fans in Italy, all with a common hate denominator - the police - and the vast majority linked to extremist right-wing movements.

To some extent, this may well explain the widespread violence in reaction to the death of Gabriele Sandri. In several cities, Atalanta, Milan, Inter, Juventus, Parma, Roma and Lazio fans, unusually, came together in systematic and violent but vain attempts to provoke the police into all-out guerrilla warfare. It was as if the shooting of Sandri had offered the "ultras" the perfect excuse.

The widespread nature of the violence on Sunday prompts an uncomfortable question. Is this violence about something more than football? Is it about the alienation of a whole subculture? Is it possible that the social fabric of Italy, a country where organised crime generates a €90-billion turnover, is, if not unravelling, at least suffering a serious tear? In such a context, it seems unlikely yesterday's decisions to ban "away" fans and suspend next Sunday's second and third division programme will resolve much.