(ANSA) - Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu warned Wednesday that Italy's soccer clubs must be ready to implement the government's new anti-hooliganism measures for the start of the Serie A season this weekend.
Many top-flight clubs are behind schedule in their preparations for the new regime, with the requirement that spectators names appear on tickets proving particularly problematic. At a meeting of Italy's National Sporting Events Observatory though, Pisanu said clubs who failed to implement the most "urgent" aspects of the government package will face increasingly sharp penalties.
These range from 5,000-euro fines to the termination of a club's licence to use its stadium. The government has passed a series of anti-violence measures in recent months in an attempt to squash Italy's growing soccer hooliganism problem.
The introduction of numbered tickets with buyers' names on is designed to make it easier for the authorities to detect troublemakers. "The new rules should be implemented with the necessary degree of flexibility, but without any procrastination," Pisanu said.
"It has to be clear that the security of every single spectator, and of every member of the security forces, is worth exactly as much as that of the security of the most expensive player on the field." Some supporters' groups, however, claim the measures are unworkable.
"The Pisanu law cannot be applied because it is practically impossible for a fan-committee chief to know who will go to an away match and provide their details several days in advance," said Pier Carlo Perruquet, a member of Turin's Forza Juve Fan Club. "We wanted to organize a trip to Juventus's away match
against Empoli, but we gave up because most people could not be sure what commitments they would have before the game."
Other parts of the new package include stiffer punishments for those found guilty of crowd trouble, stronger police powers to stop people responsible for hooliganism going to football matches and greater use of video surveillance inside grounds. Last season was a wretched one for off-the-field incidents in Italian soccer. Three Serie A clubs, AS Roma, Lazio and Inter, were handed European competition stadium bans because of the conduct of their supporters.
The nadir came in April when crowd trouble forced refs to halt the Champions League quarter-final Derby between Inter and AC Milan. Pisanu said deadline delays will be conceded to clubs and town councils - which run many Italian grounds - to make "structural" changes required to improve security at stadiums.
Police chiefs and representatives of the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) also attended Wednesday's National Sporting Events Observatory meeting.
