Genoa gets 2-match home stadium ban after protests

Genoa gets 2-match home stadium ban after protests

Published Apr. 23, 2012 6:24 p.m. ET

Genoa was banned from playing at home for its final two home matches this season following a protest-filled 4-1 loss to Siena.

The league announced the decision a day after Sunday's match with Siena was suspended for about 45 minutes early in the second half, when Genoa fans threw flares onto the pitch and climbed atop barriers as they were faced by stewards in riot gear.

With their side trailing 4-0, players tried to appease the hard-core ''ultra'' fans by removing their shirts to acknowledge they weren't worthy of wearing them.

Also, police identified three fans who were involved and banned them from sport events for five years, according to the ANSA news agency.

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It was the latest in a long list of crowd trouble incidents at Serie A matches, and Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Petrucci declared Monday that the situation is ''beyond the point of no return.''

Genoa only has two home games remaining this season - vs. Cagliari on May 2 and vs. Palermo on May 13.

The loss left Genoa one point above the relegation zone, and resulted in coach Alberto Malesani being fired for the second time this season.

''It's not enough to ban the stadium, we need to stop these delinquents that are damaging football and Genoa,'' Serie A president Maurizio Beretta said.

Italian football federation president Giancarlo Abete said the players shouldn't have given in to the fans' demands, but Genoa president Enrico Preziosi said taking off the shirts ''made good sense, to prevent something worse from happening.

''They were throwing fireworks and small bombs onto the pitch,'' Preziosi added. ''These 60-70 people are not fans, they're just organized delinquents.''

An Italy-Serbia match in the same stadium last season was stopped in similar circumstances - albeit with Serbian fans causing the violence. There were also massive clashes following the shooting of a Lazio fan by a police officer at a highway rest stop in 2007. And the hard-core ''ultra'' fans forced the 2004 Rome derby to be suspended after a false rumor spread that a boy had been shot by police outside the stadium.

The latest protests came just a week after all Italian matches were canceled following the death of Piermario Morosini in a Serie B game due to cardiac arrest.

''I'm not sure people realize what is happening to part of the football world,'' Petrucci said. ''A week ago we had a drama and there was dedication to (improve), but yesterday it seemed like nothing had happened at all. We showed how you can ruin the best show in the world.

''Whoever can intervene needs to, and CONI is leading the list,'' Petrucci added. ''I just hope that starting tomorrow we don't go back to just talking about matches with nobody admitting that we should be ashamed of ourselves.''

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