Aggressive Italian police to blame for ugly scenes, says Frisk

POLICE AGGRESSION made a tense situation “catch fire” at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, according to former referee Anders Frisk.

Frisk — who experienced trouble at the Stadio Olimpico first-hand before his retirement in 2005 — believes the police’s heavy-handed tactics were largely to blame for the ugly scenes which marred the game.

Trouble flared after rival fans threw missiles and surged towards a barrier separating them and police weighed in to attack United supporters with batons.

“The approach from the Italian police — my feeling was that they were very close to the United supporters.

“What caused it was something that had been thrown. The Italian police reacted very, very aggressively towards one or two incidents. This is what caused everything to catch fire.”

Frisk, who abandoned a game between Roma and Dynamo Kiev in 2004 after being struck by a missile, also claimed that lax security on the way into the ground was another factor.

“When I went through the gates I was not searched at all, and of course if you do not search the people they will bring in bottles and things to throw at each other — that was a major mistake,” the Swede added.

UEFA have refused to condemn the actions of the police but have launched an investigation in the events of the evening.

Former England midfielder David Platt believes the aggressive approach of the police has increased since he played in Italy in the early 1990s.

Platt, who played for Bari, Juventus and Sampdoria, said: “I think it has escalated. It was always there, there was always an underlying current of it.

“There is not a great deal of respect for law and order out there in many, many ways in terms of the policing and as a result you do get violence — not necessarily between rival sets of fans but invariably it is supporters against the police.

“And the police do get involved and all of a sudden it does become a free for all between the police and fans.”

Platt added that the police approach was counter-productive, continuing: “I don’t think it is the right way to go about restoring order.

“I think it was just a case of, ‘we are just going to beat you with batons indiscriminately and we don’t mind who we hit but that is how we’ll restore order, we’ll have 10 minutes of violence ourselves’.”

The British Government are being called on to intervene and a police chief from Middlesbrough, who experienced trouble in Rome last year, has warned there could be a fatality in the future.

Dave McLuckie, chairman of Cleveland Police Authority, travelled with the Middlesbrough supporters who suffered similar problems before a UEFA Cup tie last season.

“I was astounded and horrified that the Italian authorities have still not got their act together.

“I watched the pictures and the pictures tell no lies: there were some fans who were lying on the floor virtually unconscious and unable to pose any further threat and they were still being beaten by officers.”

Added Bolton manager Sam Allardyce: “It happens in Italy all the time doesn’t it with the police?

“I didn’t see anything that hasn’t happened before, or won’t happen again in the future given the way they run things in that country.

“It was incredibly disappointing to see what happened, not from a Manchester United point of view, but as I see it from an Italian police point of view.

“They were dishing out sheer brutality rather than prevention.”