Meet the New Guidelines, Same as the Old Guidelines

By: Martha | February 6th, 2007

San Siro. Empty. Though it won't be. As expected, the safety measures which emerged from football’s crisis meeting yesterday essentially mirror those created — and never enforced — by Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu in 2003. The difference this time, one hopes, is that clubs and their grounds will be expected to abide by the rules, rather than simply being allowed to slide by. Put in the most general terms, the proposed rules (expected to be approved in a governmental meeting on Wednesday) include the following:

•Numbered and named tickets;
•Stewards (as opposed to cops) paid for by clubs (or CONI, for now) to increase regulation and control of fans;
•Turnstiles at entrances, to keep unticketed fans from simply walking in;
•Extensive CCTV monitoring of stadia and their surroundings;
•A ban on bulk ticket sales to traveling fans;
•Police authority to keep known “trouble-makers” — including minors — out of grounds, even if there is no evidence they plan to be disruptive;
•Club relationships with Ultra groups will be monitored closely and, ideally, ended;
•Anyone arrested for violating these rules at a ground can be held for 48 hours.

At the moment, it seems likely games will resume this weekend, with only grounds meeting the above standards hosting fans. While this hard-line approach is welcome, the problem is that only four grounds in all of Italy currently comply with the Pisanu rules (which include CCTV, turnstiles, etc.), and it’s going to be hard for the others to get up to code very quickly.

So how long the strict enforcement will last is anyone’s guess, particularly after a week or two of empty stadiums leads to increased dissent from players and ownership. After all, empty seats means lost money, and that will inevitably lead to a lot of high-level complaining, something which traditionally gets bosses what they want.