Fights, flares and little forgivenessDominic Fifield at the Stadio delle Alpi
Thursday April 14, 2005
The Guardian
A banner was unfurled on the curva sud an hour before kick-off here reminding, poignantly: "Easy to speak . . . difficult to pardon." Painful memories of the Heysel Stadium disaster hung heavy in this arena last night, with the local mood summed up neatly in those simple white letters on a red background. For many in Turin, it has not been possible to forget.
This was the first competitive meeting between these sides in this city since 39 Juventus supporters lost their lives when a wall collapsed after a charge by Liverpool fans before the 1985 European Cup final. Attempts to cultivate "amicizia" (friendship) in the first leg at Anfield last week had been greeted with derision by some Juve fans, their ultras turning their backs on the ceremony aimed at reconciliation. For a while here last night, 20 years of simmering enmity threatened to boil over into violence.
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There were ugly scenes both inside and outside the ground, with flares fired into the celebrating visiting supporters at the end as the reality of Liverpool's unlikely progress sank in. That maintained the snarling mood of the night and visiting fans were kept in the ground long after the final whistle.
Before kick-off a group of about 50 Juventus fans wielding batons clashed with riot police outside the stadium. The carabinieri, pelted with bottles and flares, took over 30 minutes to disperse the troublemakers - part of a larger group of about 150 locals - using tear gas. Two vehicles were left in flames. The offenders, wearing scarves over their faces to avoid identification, broke up into smaller groups as two police helicopters surveyed the scene.
Yet, though disturbances had been grimly anticipated outside the ground, events inside were shameful. A pitiful number of police and stewards had been stationed in the curva nord and they were utterly incapable of preventing the torrent of missiles flung initially from home fans over no-man's land into the lower section of the Liverpool support. The visitors responded, bottles arrowing back over the divide into the taunting Italians, with an extra line of riot police appearing only once kick-off approached. More stewards were belatedly deployed once the game was under way. Liverpool fans' mood was not improved by a banner referring to the Hillsborough disaster: "15.4.89. Sheffield. God Exists."
By then a message had twice been issued over the public address system, in Italian and English, warning that anyone caught throwing objects faced between six months and three years in prison. By the time that message was reissued at half-time the barrage had resumed, with a flare spouting fumes from the open terracing in front of the Juve fans.
Perhaps the scenes were to be expected. This tie was a nightmarish exercise in logistics for the authorities. Police had tightened security and drafted in undercover agents to help keep the peace, with the majority of English fans bussed to the stadium last night from accommodation well outside Turin.
Many were taken straight from the airport to restaurants and bars in neighbouring towns in order to separate the two sets of fans. The 72 hour alcohol ban apparently imposed in Turin centre - it applied onlyto bars and not hotels or supermarkets - dissuaded others from venturing into areas which might otherwise have proved perilous.
Even so, one fan had been attacked in a city pub by five Juventus supporters wielding bottles and baseball bats. "There was an argument and a Liverpool fan was hit on the head with a bat by one of the Juve fans," confirmed Cecilia Tartoni, a spokeswoman for Turin police. "The Liverpool fan received medical attention in the pub." He was later deemed fit enough to attend the game.
"Some 20 Juventus fans were stopped by the police," added Tartoni. "We searched vehicles and their homes and found baseball bats and other weapons. Eight have been detained for possession of arms."
That set a worrying tone which lingered into the match, for all that the majority of fans treated the memories of Heysel with much more dignity. Banners at the opposite end, where hoardings bearing the date 1985 are permanent, read: "The 39 angels look down with pride on us tonight" and "What is deep in the heart never dies".
Italian football could have done without last night's darker incidents. After Tuesday's disgraceful scenes in Milan, when Internazionale fans pelted the Milan goalkeeper Dida with flares, prompting the abandonment of their Champions League quarter-final, the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi had called for "drastic measures" to combat the upsurge of violence.
Berlusconi met the interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu to discuss the problem and later warned: "There is a clear risk of even more serious incidents in future, a risk which must be avoided by all possible means." Here last night, with emotions running high, risk became reality yet again.
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