Italian football yet again finds itself in the dock in relation to violence, in the wake of Wednesday night's Champions League clash between AS Roma and Manchester United. European football's governing body, Uefa, yesterday confirmed it would be investigating the events at the Olympic Stadium in Rome - where Italian riot police waded in to United's 4,000-strong travelling support - events seen by television audiences all over Europe .
Furthermore, the British government and Manchester United yesterday expressed their concern at the incidents, both promising to further investigate them.
Speaking on BBC Radio Five Live yesterday, the British home office junior minister Vernon Coaker said, "The scenes that we saw on our television screens were extremely concerning. We need some explanation of what actually took place and the police response to it."
Manchester United were forthright in their condemnation of the Italian police, commenting in a statement yesterday, "The distressing scenes witnessed at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday night shocked everyone at Old Trafford. In what the club views as a severe over-reaction, local police handed out indiscriminate beatings to United supporters. In these circumstances neither Manchester United nor AS Roma is able to call the police to account. As a result the club warmly welcomes the government examination of the incident and will collect witness statements from fans to submit to the Home Office."
As often happens on evenings like this, there was violence inside and outside the ground. Eleven Manchester Utd fans were taken to hospital, two of them being detained overnight with stab wounds, though neither was said to be in a life-threatened condition.
Outside the ground, minor trouble flared when 300 or so United fans came into contact with a group of Roma fans, prompting an exchange of improvised missiles before the police broke up the scuffles by firing tear gas at both groups.
By far the most serious incident happened inside the Stadio Olimpico after Roma scored their first goal through Brazilian Taddei just before half-time. At that point, the rival fans appeared to trade insults and throw various objects. By way of resolving the situation, the police chose to charge the Manchester fans, knocking many to the ground and even appearing to inflict bloody head wounds on some.
Despite the criticism, Rome's head of police, Achille Serra, yesterday defended his men: "The police acted correctly. If anyone is able to prove the contrary I would be the first to demand an investigation. The police were positioned high up on the terraces and had no choice but to intervene".
Prefect Serra also dismissed as "total fantasy" reports 1500 ticketless and disorderly Manchester Utd fans had been allowed into the game just before kick-off.
The newly-elected Italian Football Federation president, Giancarlo Abete, also defended the police: "The English press speaks of heavy-handed police? We owe gratitude to our law enforcers and I don't think that those who try to make games safe should be crucified in this manner."
To some extent, there was an inevitability about Wednesday's scuffles. From the moment Manchester United and some British media appeared to provoke a minor diplomatic incident by warning fans to avoid rather unlikely "trouble spots" - such as the Campo di Fiori - the scene was set for violence.
Furthermore, English fans, even after all these years, still tend to travel with a "hooligan" label attached, at least in the eyes of Italian police.
Wednesday night's incidents bore a great similarity to the Italy v England World Cup qualifier in September 1997, when again the Italian police chose to respond to bottle-throwing by attacking the English fans.
For Italian football, however, these latest events have come at a delicate moment. In just a few days' time, a Uefa executive meeting in Cardiff will assign the 2012 European Championships. Italy is hot favourite to host the competition, heading off opposition from joint Poland/Ukraine and Hungary/Croatia bids.
Just two months after police inspector Filippo Raciti was killed during riots prior to the Catania v Palermo Serie A game, Italian football could do without further negative publicity. Furthermore, the Italian federation hopes the hosting of the 2012 European Championships will encourage the government to make available funds and low-interest loans so Italy's largest clubs will purchase and modernise the country's stadia.
As of now, nearly all Italian stadia are owned by local-government authorities, while the old-fashioned, outdated layout of many of them has been widely held responsible for exacerbating crowd violence.
