After the death two weeks ago of the cop during the Catania-Palermo derby, the men’s Serie A championship (and all other games, including women’s soccer), kicked-off again last Sunday, but not without the usual idiots (some games, such as Fiorentina-Udinese, were played behind closed doors amid the protests of local fans). At Rome’s Olympic stadium a minute of silence was observed for the death of the police officer and of a manager who was kicked to death during an amateur match a few weeks ago. The minute of silence was observed at all games.
So what did some Roma fans do? They turned their backs on the pitch in a sign of protest (why I ask?). The gesture was seen by the thousands of other more “serious” fans in the stadium and were eventually booed and clapped in a sign of their own protest at the rather stupid gesture. This wasn’t the only stupid gesture: in an amateur match a manager flung a steel barrier at another team manager and hit him with a cane. Nothing terribly unusual together with the odd fireworks thrown on soccer pitches. Oddly and luckily enough, these kinds of zany things DON’T happen at women’s matches (thus confirming the fact that women are quite often MORE intelligent and not as violent as men!).
Udinese in the meantime risks in two weeks’ time to also play behind close doors as the automatic turnstiles which have been demanded by the soccer authorities are still not in place (AC Milan and Inter over at San Siro had them in place on the weekend). There’s now a push-and-pull with the club and the city of Udine (which owns the stadium) as no one wants to dish out the money. Giuliano Amato, the Home Minister, said a few days ago that “NASA went on the moon, so installing these turnstiles isn’t the most expensive or difficult thing to do”.
Go say that though to Pozzo, Udinese’s president (or the mayor of Udine)!
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