Verdict Comes Down on Inter Banners: New Rules Are Flexed

By: Martha | October 16th, 2007

Inter = evil Though they took their sweet time about it, Italian sporting judges have finally handed down their decision about the racist/regional-based abuse of Napoli supporters by Inter fans during the last round of games. (The abuse was mostly in the form of a series of large banners, but there were accounts of racists chants, as well.) As a result of the fan behavior, Inter has been fined €30,000 (Moratti is not pleased), and the upper part of the Curva Nord will be closed when Inter host Genoa on October 31, the first home game after the offenses took place. So, thhere won’t be any travel bans, and there will be no games played behind closed doors. So far the latter has only happened once this season, after Napoli fans threw yogurt cups (Seriously, NapoliJoe said so!) at stewards.

The power to close only a certain part of a ground is a new one, and is part of a conscious effort to punish offenders rather than all supporters for the misbehavior of a few, usually members of Ultra groups. On one hand, it’s great idea — punishing the people who actually commit a wrong is always easy to get behind. On the other, though, isn’t there something to be said for punishing the whole for the actions of a few? I mean, isn’t that why everyone has to do push-ups for three hours when one stupid knob doesn’t tuck his shirt it, or something? We’ve seen one sign of self-enforcement among calcio fans so far this season — is it reasonable to hope for more, or are the Ultras simply beyond the reach (both physically and otherwise) of the common fan?

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Category: Inter, Rumors & News, Serie A

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Ashley N

The lack of control over crowds is completely crazy to me. When my college plays football(American), we have our school's police, GBI(the state's version of the FBI), local police, ATF agents, and state patrol. And we never have crowd or banner issues and that's with hours of tailgating and drinking(and I do mean hardcore drinking for like 7 hours). So the fact that they can't get this under control is ridiculous. They really need to re-evaluate their priorties because I don't think they are trying hard enough to fix the issue.

But then again, I've never been to a game there so I wouldn't know the situation first hand.
mele419

One thing I'd just like to say...
While gli Ultra are not at their peak strength, they still are not going to listen. They'll do what they like when they like and no one can tell them otherwise. Until calcio officials start handing down REAL punishments, and make and ENFORCING real rules, they'll continue their racism, rioting, flares and all the things they do best.