Professional soccer players in Italy
could face disciplinary action as severe as disqualification for
submitting to demands from hard-core 'ultra' fans, the head of
the players association said Monday.
"No more blatant submissions or showdowns between players
and fans," said Damiano Tommasi, president of the professional
players association AIC.
He spoke following a meeting on the topic of pressure by
hard-core fans to bend players' behaviour during matches.
Games are increasingly being marred by a series of violent
episodes which many experts say are the result of the excessive
power many ultra groups of hardcore fans have gained.
There have been several incidents of players and clubs
cowering to the ultras, rather than risk angering them.
That includes a 2012 match when Genoa fans managed to get
the game suspended by throwing smoke bombs and intimidated their
team to remove their shirts following a poor run of form because
the players were supposedly unfit to wear them.
"I'm tired of this," Giovanni Malago', the head of the
Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). said recently.
"The punishments given by the sporting judge (to clubs
whose fans misbehave) are not sufficient to change some people's
attitudes.
Italian governments and the Italian Soccer Federation
(FIGC) have, in fact, repeatedly stiffened punishments for
offenders and their clubs in cases of football-related violence
and racism, but to little avail.
Some commentators argue that the a big part of the problem
is how the measures are applied.
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