Recent violence in Italy prompts more soul-searching

Atalanta players try to calm their rioting fans during last month's game vs. AC Milan. Roberto Baretti/AFP/Getty Images

By Paddy Agnew, Special to SI.com, World Soccer

Italian soccer is once again in the dock. In the wake of the gas-station shooting of 26-year-old Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri last month, some grim considerations have returned to haunt Italian soccer and, arguably, Italian society at large.

Before considering the implications of this latest violent outrage, it is worth recalling the events of Sun., Nov. 11.

The day's drama began near Arezzo in Tuscany at the Badia al Pino service station on the A1, Italy's busiest highway and the road linking Rome and Milan. Two cars, one carrying Lazio fans and the other Juventus fans and both traveling north, had pulled into the stop at the same time, shortly after nine in the morning. The Lazio fans were traveling to Milan for the big match of the day, Internazionale vs. Lazio, while the other car contained Neapolitan Juventus fans traveling to see their side play at Parma.

The two sets of fans noticed each other and engaged in verbal exchanges that, apparently, soon degenerated into a scuffle. At this point, the story becomes confused. Unknown to the fans, a police car was parked across the motorway in the southbound part of the service station.

Whether summoned by radio or because they noticed the scuffle themselves, the officers decided to intervene. Luigi Spaccarotella pulled out his service revolver and fired two shots, the first one in the air, the second one perhaps aimed at the rear wheel of the Lazio fans' Renault Scenic, in the back seat of which sat Sandri.

This second shot went through the back window of the car, hitting Sandri in the neck, causing wounds from which he died shortly afterwards.

Police spokesmen subsequently described the incident as a "tragic error." It may well be that Spaccarotella didn't realize that the scuffle on the other side of the highway involved soccer fans. He may have been under the impression that some sort of robbery was under way.

It also seems likely that, after his first shot in the air, both sets of fans abandoned their squabble and jumped into their cars, driving away at speed. At this point, the hapless policeman, thinking that the "robbers" were attempting a quick getaway, may have attempted to fire at the back wheel of one of the two cars.

From this point on, the day's events divide into two categories. The first relate to the controversial, almost inexplicable dynamic of Sandri's killing; the second relate to the angry reaction to the killing throughout Italy.

In many cities, notably Bergamo, Milan, Parma, Rome, Taranto and Turin, so-called fans engaged in a variety of protests, some of them violent. In theory, even though the Inter-Lazio game was postponed, the "ultras," or hard-line fans, were protesting about the decision to go ahead with the rest of the day's scheduled matches.

1 of 2