Coppa Italia officials and police accused of capitulating to football hooliganism
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Version 0 of 1. Italian football officials and police were accused on Sunday of capitulating to hooliganism over claims they had negotiated permission to play Italy's equivalent of the FA Cup final with a leader of some of the country's most notoriously violent fans. The start of Saturday's Coppa Italia final between Napoli and Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome was delayed by 45 minutes following pre-match violence that left three Napoli fans in hospital with gunshot wounds. Ciro Esposito, 27, was still in a critical condition on Sunday. A fourth man, Daniele De Santis, was under police guard in hospital accused of attempted murder. He was reported to be suffering from serious head injuries. As rumours swept the stadium that the final would be called off because of the violence, Napoli's captain, Marek Hamsik, went to the edge of the pitch, accompanied by officials, and spoke to representatives of his side's "ultras", the fans associated with much of the organised violence that surrounds the game in Italy. The match went ahead after the ultras on both sides agreed to watch in silence. The man apparently in charge of the talks with Hamsik was Gennaro De Tommaso, known as Genny 'a carogna or Genny the swine. The extensively tattooed De Tommaso was wearing a T-shirt calling for the release of the convicted murderer of a policeman. Chief inspector Filippo Raciti was killed in 2007 while on duty at a football match in Catania. His widow accused the state of giving in to the ultras, saying she felt "embittered, humiliated and offended". Police trade union representatives and several politicians also deplored the incident. Rome's police commissioner denied there had been any negotiation. Massimo Mazza said police had merely asked Hamsik to "inform the fans, at their request, of Esposito's condition". Before the game, fans of the two sides – some masked and hooded and wielding staves – fought one another and turned on police struggling to keep them apart. Esposito appeared to have fallen victim not to rivalry between the two sides, but to enmity between Napoli fans and those of the local team, AS Roma. De Santis, a leader of Roma's ultras, was found unconscious on a main road leading into the city. According to Italian media reports quoting police sources, he was suspected along with others of having used smoke bombs to ambush a party of Napoli fans. When they responded, he was said to have pulled out a gun and started shooting. In another version, it was the Napoli supporters who started the violence. De Santis was a central figure in an earlier demonstration of the ultras' daunting power in 2004. He was among those who ordered a Roma-Lazio derby to be called off after a false rumour was spread that police had killed a child. De Santis was tried in connection with the incident, but the charges were timed out by a statute of limitations. |