Middlesbrough is considering reporting AS Roma to UEFA after 13 club supporters were injured in a brawl with local fans on the eve of a Uefa Cup second leg match in Rome.
Terry Tasker, the Middlesbrough head of safety and security, told the London Times that a decision will be taken over the next few days. "We're extremely disappointed and upset by this incident," Tasker said.
Knives and broken bottles were used in a scuffle between English soccer fans and Roman youths in an historic Rome square on Tuesday night.
The fight in Campo de' Fiori broke out after the locals taunted a group of Middlesbrough fans. The English fans got the worse of it with 13 people ranging from 19 to 44 in age hospitalised, mostly with stab wounds.
All the wounds were slight, however. The fan who will stay the longest in hospital was a 35-year-old who had a foot bone broken. Eye witnesses said it was clear that the English had been drinking all night.
Police estimated the rival forces as 30 Middlesbrough supporters and 80 Romans.
British police who accompanied Middlesbrough fans to Italy expressed "a massive sense of relief" that no one was killed in what they said was an orchestrated assault. Although Roma won 2-1 on Wednesday it went out of the UEFA Cup on away goals after a 2-2 draw over the two legs.
Middlesbrough goes on to play the Cup quarter-finals.
