Italian cabinet to discuss football violence measures

Premier Romano Prodi’s cabinet was meeting tonight to devise anti-violence measures for football stadiums after the fatal attack on a policeman during rioting outside a Serie A game last week.

Among the measures widely expected to win approval were proposals to keep fans out of the stadiums until security measures are in place and to bar clubs from selling blocks of tickets to visiting fans.

Meanwhile, investigators in Catania were examining a film of the attack in hopes of identifying the culprits, police said.

Authorities did not say exactly what the stadium’s closed-circuit cameras showed.

However, Italian newspapers and news agencies said the film shows fighting which began outside the stadium after the Catania-Palermo match had kicked off on Friday.

The reports say the film shows youths with partially-covered faces approaching 38-year-old police officer Filippo Raciti and one of them hitting him in the abdomen.

So far, at least 38 people have been arrested, including 15 minors, and at least two more taken in for questioning. None has been accused of murder.