Catania Fans Won’t Have to Find a New Place to Riot if the City Fathers Have Anything to Say About It

By: Martha | February 14th, 2007

Yeah, they're totally blameless. Not surprisingly, a sports judge has shut down Catania’s now-notorious stadium (the deadly riot during the Palermo match was only the most recent in a series of problems), and it will stay closed and locked until the summer. Not only will the club have to find other places to play their home matches (which, no matter where they take place, will be played behind closed doors), but they also have been hit with a $65,000 fine, an amount that, while it seems somewhat insignificant for a major sports team, is probably a pretty big deal to a tiny club that just lost almost five months of gate receipts.

Catania, however, are not taking this lying down — no sir! Despite the fact that fascist Ultras were evidently storing weapons in the freaking stadium, the club consider themselves entirely blameless. In fact, they’re the victims here. Do you hear me? The victims! To wit: “This was an unjust sentence, abnormal, discriminatory and racist from the North of Italy that does not want a Southern club to be strong in Serie A.” (Ok, I’m not going to say there aren’t issues between the North and the South of Italy, but I’d have a lot more sympathy for this little sob story were there not fascists, a storeroom full of weapons, and a dead cop involved.)

Positive the entire city is being terribly mistreated, the city council of Catania have announced their plans to sue the FIGC (AKA Italian football federation) to get the verdict overturned. And, considering this is Italy and all, I’d say their chances of success are at least 50-50. If it doesn’t work the first time, they can follow the example of Milan and Juve and just try again — eventually, the punishment will probably be significantly reduced. Sigh.

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: Catania, Serie A

« Tonis and Gilas and (a) Frenchman, Oh My! | Home | Coach Berlusconi is Back! »

Martha

Pete: You figured it out! I know there's at least one Ultra with a premium LJ account.

Pete and Lisa: I agree that the legal system tends to crawl in Italy, but at the same time when football and deadlines are involved, it can show rare signs of life. So one of two things will happen: Either Catania will get cleared to play the rest of the season at home in May, 2009, or it will be decided next Friday after four lightning appeals.

Cham and Pete: Just so you know, Scipio Africanus is the new mascot of this blog. I'm going to find a picture now.
RomaPete

I think in the mystery of the LJ account we can see the hand of the Catania ultras. No doubt they have heard of your comments.
As for the legal proceedings, this being Italy, whose proceedings are as slow as American ones and even more convoluted, it will drag on for months, there will be at least half a dozen separate decisions rendered by various courts, boards, and other organs and appurtenances of the state, all of which will be appealed and overturned by another half dozen....well, you get the idea. In the end, nothing will change. Carthaginians indeed. I don't know if Scipio Africanus really qualifies as a fascist (though doubtless Mussolini would have made the claim), but he knew a thing or two about weapons. Ciao tutti!
Cham

Sicilians have been playing the party of victim quite well; just look at the First Carthaginian War. Wasn't that some ultra-fascist, weapons-stored nonsense.
Lisa

Hi Martha, I've been reading here for a while but never commented before. You may not be able to find out how the Live Journal feed came about- any paid or permanent Live Journal member can create a LJ syndicate from an RSS or Atom feed. Someone must have thought you were awesome, but didn't think to tell you.

Back to Catania, what do you think their chances of finishing their legal proceedings before the end of the season are? As you say, if they follow the Juve/Milan try, try again approach, it seems likely they would get their punishment reduced eventually, but if that doesn't happen before the last week or two of the season, it won't matter much in practical terms.
Satine

I read the livejournal account, too. Bring it back, please.
Martha

And Laurie, this is what we're talking about (though that link is useless b/c, as Ruby said, it's been suspended). Somehow the RSS feed was being pulled into a Live Journal page, but I have no idea how that came about. It's all very mysterious.
Martha

Man, I had no idea anyone was even reading that LJ account, that's crazy! Yvanne, Ruby, I'll look into it and see if I can find out what exactly is going on over there -- how my content got there in the first place, among other things! -- but in the meantime I would love it if you would be willing to hang out here with us.

It's not Live Journal, but I promise the people are pretty cool here, too!
Laurie

I feel like I just walked into the middle of a movie. Do tell! WHAT syndicated LiveJournal account?
Yvanne

Hello ! I was wondering about the LiveJournal account, too. I loved to read your posts from my friends-list, it was very convenient. Ah, well. I'll have to love reading your posts directly here. Anyway, thanks for the daily dose of laughs and thought-provoking sarcasms !
Martha

Hey Ruby, thanks for stopping by! Actually, I had nothing to do with that LJ account (didn't even know about it until today) which is probably why it was suspended. I hope you guys will read the site here, or grab the authorized feed (it's here) -- either way, please do hang around!
Ruby

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that your syndicated account over at LiveJournal has been suspended. My flist and I are having a mad panic about it, we don't know what we'll do without you.

*crosses fingers that you'll be back soon*

Ruby
x