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Return to ‘Radio Nostalgia’: Twenty Years of ‘Anti-Violence’ Legislation in Italian Stadia

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Legal Responses to Football Hooliganism in Europe

Part of the book series: ASSER International Sports Law Series ((ASSER))

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Abstract

This chapter aims to retrace the implementation of counter-hooliganism legislation in Italy over the past 20 years. The perception of threat connected with football disorder has led to the gradual introduction of ‘emergency’ measures, generally passed in the aftermath of tragic and extreme episodes of violence at football grounds. Most of these are preventive measures, discretionally used by police and aimed mainly at incapacitating the so-called ‘potential troublemakers’. The chapter will focus on these measures, analysing them technically and highlighting the main issues in particular with respect to fans’ civil rights.

Dr Arianna Sale obtained her PhD in European Urban and Local Studies at the University of Milan Bicocca with a thesis on police management in football conflict in Italy and the UK. The author would like to thank Geoff Pearson and Lorenzo Contucci for their helpful comments, which have improved the quality of the final chapter.

Radio Nostalgia is the station broadcasting Genoa CFC matches. Nostalgia also represents the feeling of many fans and Ultras for their curva experience, which is gradually fading due to 20 years of ‘anti-violence’ policies (Contucci 2010; Francesio 2008; Marchi 2005; Sale 2010a, b).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Article 419 Penal Code, Section V (Offences against Public Order). ‘Devastation’ is the damage to a large number of things, spread over a wide area that threatens public order. ‘Looting’ is the theft, often accompanied by violence, committed by several individuals, that disturbs the peace and safety of the community.

  2. 2.

    These are immediately apparent from the documents published at http://www.osservatoriosport.interno.gov.it/pubblicazioni/index.html.

  3. 3.

    In particular, Dal Lago 1990; De Biasi 2001; Marchi 2005; Salvini 1988; Sale 2010a, b.

  4. 4.

    Sale 2010a, b.

  5. 5.

    De Biasi 1998; Marchi 2005; Sale 2010b.

  6. 6.

    Tsoukala 2009.

  7. 7.

    In the previous season, two episodes caused a strong emotional reaction: in October 1988, a 32 year-old Ascoli fan was seriously injured during a violent brawl which broke out between rival fans. A few months later, in June of 1989, Antonio De Falchi, an 18 year-old AS Roma supporter, died from a cardiac arrest after an ambush by a group of Milanese Ultras.

  8. 8.

    Balestri and Cacciari 1998.

  9. 9.

    Balestri and Cacciari 1998; Padovano 2005.

  10. 10.

    It has been observed from the earliest ethnographic studies on the practices of policing in England that often the decision by the police to apply a rule that punishes widespread behaviour (such as drinking in the United Kingdom) is the result of an overall assessment of the situation not necessarily tied to a desire to strictly adhere to the law but more often to the practical need to manage a ‘public order’ situation: ‘Compliance with the law is merely the outward appearance of an intervention that is usually based on altogether different considerations. Thus, it could be said that patrolmen do not really enforce the law, even when they do invoke it, but merely use it as a resource to solve certain pressing practical problems in keeping the peace. […] virtually any set of norms could be used in this manner, provided that they sanction relatively common forms of behaviour’ (Bittner 1967, p. 710).

  11. 11.

    Marchi 2005.

  12. 12.

    On this occasion the charge of ‘psychological violence’ against players was introduced for the first time. In a decisive game that Genoa was losing 4-0, the fans, without exerting any physical violence, successfully forced players to take off their shirts because they were considered unworthy wearers of the traditional red and blue colours.

  13. 13.

    For a reconstruction of the history of football conflict, Marchi 2005; Francesio 2008; Sale 2010b.

  14. 14.

    Contrary to the legal system, where Parliament is the deliberative body, the decree-law is adopted by the Council of Ministers (the executive power). The Government should present the bill to the House on the same day; if the decree is not ratified within 60 days, it ceases to be effective. According to the prevailing view in law, this is justified by the need to promptly legislate ‘extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency’. In the presence of these conditions, the Government acquires the power to temporarily exercise its legislative function.

  15. 15.

    James and Pearson 2006; Stott and Pearson 2006.

  16. 16.

    Ferrajoli 1996, p. 796.

  17. 17.

    Marchi, 2005. For the same reason, the fact that cross examination was not compulsory was considered unconstitutional (Case 144, May 1997) but only with reference to the obligation to report to the police station, not to the banning notice itself, for which no amendments were considered necessary.

  18. 18.

    Contucci 2010, p. 115.

  19. 19.

    For a deeper analysis of the concept of ‘mutual respect’ between fans and the police, see Sale 2010b.

  20. 20.

    Sale 2010b, p. 325.

  21. 21.

    Petti 2007.

  22. 22.

    Massucci 2008.

  23. 23.

    It should be noted that it has not been deemed necessary to involve any academic opinion in the research.

  24. 24.

    The most striking example is the season-long ban on away games imposed on Napoli supporters (Ministerial Directive 555/Op/2144/2008/CNIMS), stated after the disturbances at Rome Termini station during the Roma v. Napoli match on September 2nd 2008. This clearly punitive ban included matches with no risk profile, such as Genoa v. Napoli, long-term “twinned” teams.

  25. 25.

    At the Catania-Palermo Sicilian Derby on February 2nd 2007, Police Inspector Filippo Raciti died in circumstances never completely clarified during clashes between fans and police in Catania. Antonio Speziale, a 17 year-old youth, was accused. Despite ambiguities in the evidence, which emerged during the trial, Speziale was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

  26. 26.

    Massucci 2008, p. 8.

  27. 27.

    Sale 2010b, p. 324.

  28. 28.

    Massucci 2008, p. 9.

  29. 29.

    Among others, Cacciari and Giudici 2010; Sale 2010b.

  30. 30.

    Following this procedure, a banner that bore the text of that very Article of the Italian Constitution, prepared by the Sampdoria fans for a Sampdoria v. Cagliari match in March 2007 was denied access to the stadium!

  31. 31.

    Filing an appeal does not suspend the immediate enforcing of the measure, so it is often useless due to the lengthy Italian legal procedures.

  32. 32.

    Massucci 2008, p. 10.

  33. 33.

    So far no examples have been encountered in a football context.

  34. 34.

    Armstrong and Hobbs 1994.

  35. 35.

    This is one of the basic principles of the ‘new paradigm of control’ (among others, Garland 2001; De Giorgi 2000).

  36. 36.

    Ferrajoli 1996, pp. 797–798, emphasis added.

  37. 37.

    Massucci 2008, p. 10, emphasis added.

  38. 38.

    Pearson 1999; Stott and Pearson 2007; Tsoukala 2007, 2009.

  39. 39.

    Tsoukala 2007, p. 5.

  40. 40.

    Marx 2007.

  41. 41.

    See www.interno.gov.it/mininterno/export/sites/default/it/sezioni/sala_stampa/speciali/Tessera_del_tifoso/FAQ_tessera_del_tifoso.html (link no longer active).

  42. 42.

    Ibid.

  43. 43.

    Although only a few lines further down it is stated that Loyalty Card holders are still required to show a valid ID on request of a steward or the police (www.osservatoriosport.interno.gov.it/tessera_del_tifoso/vantaggi.html).

  44. 44.

    Marx 2007, p. 45.

  45. 45.

    www.interno.it/mininterno/export/sites/default/it/sezioni/sala_stampa/speciali/Tessera_del_tifoso/FAQ_tessera_del_tifoso.html (link no longer active).

  46. 46.

    Ministerial Decree. 18/08/09 entitled: ‘An investigation by police on the conditions of the requisite impediments to the access to places where sporting events take place’. The date itself highlights the urgency of the measure. Ferragosto (15 August, a religious festival) is a national bank holiday.

  47. 47.

    Determination No. 27/2009 from the National Observatory of Sport Events specifies that ‘temporarily excluded from the program are those persons convicted of stadium crimes even if the sentence is not definitive, until the completion of five years after the aforementioned conviction’.

  48. 48.

    Among others, Bigo 2006; Dal Lago 2000; Tsoukala 2009.

  49. 49.

    See www.interno.it/mininterno/export/sites/default/it/sezioni/sala_stampa/speciali/Tessera_del_tifoso/FAQ_tessera_del_tifoso.html (link no longer active).

  50. 50.

    This means preventing, for example, a Genoa fan without a loyalty card (who lives in Liguria) buying a ticket for the home end of the Meazza Stadium in Milan for the high-risk Milan v. Genoa game.

  51. 51.

    The data is easily calculated by consulting the archives of the decisions taken by the CASMS and the relative judgements of the ONMS.

  52. 52.

    By the start of the 2014/15 season no further statistics had been published.

  53. 53.

    Unfortunately, there is no systematic collection of official statistics on stadia attendance and no data at all on guest supporters’ presence. The independent website monitoring on Italian football (www.osservatoriocalcioitaliano.it) compares data related to 2011–2012 and 2008–2009 Serie A seasons, recording a 8.1 % decrease in stadia attendance. Several experienced observers relate this decline to the decrease of guest supporters (among others, Contucci 2010, www.asromaultras.org).

  54. 54.

    Contucci 2010.

  55. 55.

    Castel 2003, trans. it. 2004, pp. 20–21.

  56. 56.

    Armstrong and Hobbs 1994, p. 215.

  57. 57.

    Corriere della Sera, 18/12/2010, La Repubblica, 18/12/2010.

  58. 58.

    Skolnick 1966, p. 9.

  59. 59.

    De Biasi 2001; Sale 2010b.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Urban and Local Studies, University of Milan Bicocca, Genoa, Italy

    Arianna Sale

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  1. Arianna Sale
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  1. Sport Sciences, University of Paris 11, Orsay, France

    Anastassia Tsoukala

  2. Law School, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Geoff Pearson

  3. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Peter T.M. Coenen

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Sale, A. (2016). Return to ‘Radio Nostalgia’: Twenty Years of ‘Anti-Violence’ Legislation in Italian Stadia. In: Tsoukala, A., Pearson, G., Coenen, P. (eds) Legal Responses to Football Hooliganism in Europe. ASSER International Sports Law Series. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-108-1_2

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