An Inter Milan fan run over
before the Nerazzurri's 1-0 win over Napoli Wednesday has died,
Milan police said Thursday.
The fan was named as 35-year-old Daniele Belardinelli, from
Varese north of Milan.
Belardinelli was a leader of one of the most extreme ultra
factions supporting Varese, a Serie D club whose fans are
historically twinned with those of Inter, police sources told
reporters.
He had in the past received at least one five-year DASPO ban
for hooliganism, police sources said.
Milan police chief Marcello Cardona said the fan may have
been hit by a dark SUV and not, as originally thought, a Napoli
fan van.
Over 100 Inter fans attacked Napoli fans' vans and coaches
ahead of the match, Cardona said.
He said three Inter fans had been arrested in relation to the
pre-match scuffles, which he called "extremely serious
incidents".
He said he would ask a public order committee to stop Inter
fans travelling to away games for the rest of the season, and to
close the Inter curva until the end of March.
"You can't die going to see a football match," said Interior
Minister Matteo Salvini.
Salvini said he would call a meeting of fans groups in Serie
A and Serie B at the start of the year "so that soccer may
return to being a moment of enjoyment and not violence.
"We'll see if we can do what others have not managed to do,"
said the leader of the far-right populist League party, who is
an ardent fan of the other Milanese team, AC Milan.
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala on Thursday apologised for alleged
racist chants by Inter fans against Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly
during the Nerazzurri's 1-0 win at the Meazza Wednesday night.
"Those boos against Koulibaly were a disgrace," said the
centre-left mayor.
Sala, who was at the match, apologised on behalf of the city
to the Senegal defender.
An Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC) prosecutor said "for us,
the match should have been suspended."
Naples Mayor Luigi de Magistris said "it's now State racism".
Koulibaly was red-carded five minutes before the end of the
match, just before Lautaro Martinez grabbed the winner.
Cardona, the police chief, said this was when the monkey
chants against the player had restarted, but it would have been
"risky" to suspend the game at that late point.
FIGC chief Gabriele Gravina said the federation will make it
easier to halt games for episodes of racism such as the monkey
chants that hit Koulibaly.
He also slammed the hooligan scuffles that led to
Belardinelli's death.
"We won't let such behaviour ruin soccer," he said.
"Enough is enough, what happened is intolerable".
Juventus and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo on Thursday said
no to racism after the chants allegedly aimed at Koulibaly.
"In the world and in football we always need education and
respect," he said on Instagram.
"No to racism and any offence and discrimination".
Italian soccer's sporting judge ruled that Inter will play
two games to an empty stadium plus a third with curva fans
banned because of the chants.
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