Italian Stewards Will Be Packing Heat. Brilliant.

By: Martha | July 20th, 2007

Sit down you lot! In yet another brilliant move by the Italian government, a bill to allow certain stewards to CARRY GUNS INSIDE FOOTBALL GROUNDS is awaiting parliamentary approval. Yes, this is really happening.

As you may recall, Italian football officials had a confab late last season with those from England to learn how this whole “steward” thing works. In Italy, enforcement of rules inside stadia is generally up to the police, who stay out of the terraces until something truly awful has happened; traditionally there’s no one playing the reassuring/keeping an eye on things role played by stewards in England (or, for that matter, the US). So, FIGC is going full steam ahead with stewards: The goal is to have one for every 150-250 fans in every ground.

Not all of them will be armed, though, never fear. No, no. It’s only the steward supervisors who will be wandering around the terraces with guns, and there will be one of them for every 20 stewards in every large ground. And there’s all sorts of reassuring guidelines in place to make sure no crazy people are handed firearms. For example: They have to be between 30 and 50 and have graduated from high school. Well. I don’t know about you, but I feel MUCH better.

I’m not alone in finding this a spectacularly bad idea, am I? I shudder at the thought of an armed steward wading into a crowd of drunk, pissed-off, possibly vengeful ultras — it’s an epic disaster waiting to happen.

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Category: Rumors & News, Serie A

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Martha

THANK YOU K! I spent hours (ok, not that long) drawing that gun and was getting really depressed at the lack of response. You get a gold star for the day.
k

besides the dire"ness" of the situation isnt there anyone else who found the fake gun photshopped in the picture particularly hilarious?!
mele419

I remember also at baseball games a few years back, the security was that of Florence's. No women or children were patted, only men, and even then I wouldn't call it a pat down. It's gotten much better sine then though, except they still don't pat/search children/teens.
Lisa

When Zampa is the voice of reason, it's time to worry. (Or possibly time to wonder if it's Opposite Day.) Arming stewards seems like a disaster just waiting to happen.
tmc

I'm no crowd security expert, but I would think they should be able to keep crowds in control with less violent means.

It has been awhile since I've been to a game in Italy (fall 2000), but I was always struck by the incredibly inferior security. For example, in Florence the security searched no women on the way into the stadium (largely because no Italian women are going to stand for some guy they don't know patting them down). But, they did do pretty extensive pat searches of the men on the way in.

So when I would go to games at the Artemio Franchi and sit in the Curva Fiesole, all of the women would just carry the contraband in and hand it to the men once they arrived in the seats (flares, liquor, hash, etc.)

And I hole burnt in my jacket from some kind of firework/flare thing in the San Siro at an Inter-Roma game as well. And I don't remember any security at all at the Delle Alpi in Torino. I believe the Olimpico in Rome was similar to Florence.

You'd think they could secure the grounds with metal detectors, pat downs (with women to pat down women), and adequate peaceful stewards inside the stadium.
Martha

Yeah, and when Zampa is the voice of reason, you know the situation is seriously out of control.
Mele419

Palermo Chairman Maurizio Zamparini, however, does not like the idea of seeing gun-toting stewards at matches. '"Stadiums aren't battle grounds. I'd follow the example of England, where the stewards have truncheons, not guns.'"

Well, that's something i agree with. It's like giving teachers guns to stop school shootings. It's just preposterous and shouldn't be done.