Black day for Italy as fan killed by police

ITALIAN football was in mourning again last night after the killing of Gabriele Sandri, a Lazio supporter shot by police at a motorway service station near Arezzo.

Initial reports alleged that the police had intervened in a violent clash between a group of Lazio fans on their way to Milan and a group of Juventus fans travelling to watch their team play Parma.

But later it emerged that just a handful of people had been involved in a scuffle, and that the police had fired from the other side of the motorway.

Sandri was sitting at the wheel in the car park waiting for his four friends when the vehicle was hit.

Vincenzo Giacobbe, head of police at Arezzo, said: “This is a tragic mistake. Our agent had intervened to prevent the fracas between two groups of people – that had not been considered fans — degenerating into a situation with serious consequences for both groups. I express my most profound pain and sincere condolences to the victim’s family.”

But the family of Sandri claimed last night that he had been a victim of “deliberate homicide”. The car was taken away for examination with three bullet holes in the doors.

Sandri apparently died shortly after being hit by a single bullet in the neck. A popular DJ in Rome and at resorts along the coast, he was just 28 years old.

The decision to call off the Inter-Lazio game was taken within a few hours, but supporters groups across the country reacted with fury when they discovered that other matches were going ahead.

In Bergamo the local Atalanta fans joined forces with visiting Ultras from Milan to attack the police. Big banners were displayed comparing Gabriele Sandri to Filippo Raciti, the Sicilian police inspector whose death in a riot last winter led to the cancellation of the entire football programme, ground closures and a ban on travelling fans.

As the match started, Atalanta fans smashed the security glass behind the goal and with seven minutes gone the referee called a halt in response to police instructions.

Matches elsewhere went ahead in a tense atmosphere, but in the early evening the Interior Ministry took the decision to call off the game between Roma and Cagliari. Both sets of Ultras were determined to disrupt the game, and there were also concerns about the reaction of Lazio supporters arriving back in Rome.

During the evening there were attacks on a police station and onthe headquarters of Italy’s Olympic committee.

As for the matches that did go ahead, the most significant was Fiorentina’s 2-1 defeat at home to Udinese – a win would have seen them go top – with Juventus coming back from two down to draw with Parma.

But as Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri commented after the game: “In the circumstances it is difficult to think about a football match, what matters is a lad’s death and the suffering of his family.”