Sixteen hospitalised after Serbian football fans clash with Italian police

Sixteen people were hospitalised after violence between Serbian fans and Italian police following an aborted Euro 2012 qualifying match in northern Italy. Italian newspapers Wednesday condemned the incident as the “shame of Serbia”.

Reuters

The clashes occurred before, during, and after the match between the two countries, with some Serbian fans targeting Italians, local police and their own team's goalkeeper.

The match, in Genoa, was abandoned Tuesday night after just six minutes, when Italy's goalkeeper was hit by a flare.

The most seriously injured in the violence was a member of the carabinieri, who was rushed to hospital after an explosive device detonated in his face.

After the game, in the early hours of Wednesday, Italian police kept Serbian fans hemmed into a gated parking area, intending to release them in small groups to waiting buses.

The clashes started when some of the fans managed to break out and police in riot gear moved to try to get them under control.

Police confiscated sticks, metal bars and knives from Serbian fans, and made a reported 17 arrests.

The violence brought sharp condemnation from both Italy and Serbia.

A front-page headline in La Gazzetta dello Sport read "the Beasts", next to a picture of one of the violence ringleaders wearing a skull and crossbones shirt and making a fascist salute.

"We wanted to tell you about a game of football. Instead we have to write about a shameful act. It's painful to say this but the hero of the evening was him. The man in black. The beast," the newspaper said.

The Corriere dello Sport daily headlined with "We surrendered to him", while another sports newspaper, TuttoSport, said that the clashes were the "Shame of Serbia."

"The English were excluded from European football for five years. It's time for this to happen to others,” Corriere della Sera said in an editorial.

La Repubblica warned of the rise of ultra-nationalist violence in stadiums in Eastern Europe, including in Hungary, Poland, Russia and Serbia.

Serbia has long had serious problems with violent football fans, many of whom are linked to ultra-nationalist organisations.

In September last year a French Toulouse supporter who went to Belgrade to see his club play a Europa League match died after being attacked by fans of opposing side against Partizan Belgrade.

The trial against the 14 suspects is ongoing.