Italy-Serbia: riots, shame and politics
In the last years, in many european countries, stadiums have become a field for political extremism expression. Many supposedly soccer's fans are connected to some of the most extremist far-right and far-left political parties.
The abandoned match between Italy and Serbia will be remembered as one of the worst moments of the european soccer. A few hundreds of serbian far-right extremists were able to hold hostage an entire stadium, burning some Kosovo's flags and threatening the safety of thousands of people.
Serbians extremists were already known for their violence and created riots just some days before the match when they entered in a battle with the serbian police to protest against the gaypride in Belgrade.
When they arrived in Genova, at first they created some chaos in the centre of the city, then they attacked their own national team near the stadium. They were somehow able to enter the stadium bringing an arsenal of knives, smoke bombs, pliers, screwdrivers and in the night they started a battle against the italian police.
UEFA and FIFA are accusing the italian authorities for not being able to stop the extremists from entering the stadium, while Italians are accusing serbian police for a lack of informations concerning the arrival of the extremists.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic has announced that the extremists group will be banned. For Djelic, what happened during the gaypride and in Genova was "a futile and failed attempt of anti-European forces to prevent Serbia's path to EU membership".
Anyway, in many european countries, ordinary law simply doesn't apply to soccer related violence. After the Genova riots only few extremists have been arrested while most of the extremists were able to return to Serbia and will not be incriminated.
Posted: October 14th, 2010 under UEFA European Championship.
Tags: Italy-Serbia, serbian extremists, soccer riots
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