Soccer comes to a violent halt in Italy

The bad news from Italy is that violence got a bit out of hand yesterday.All football matches have been suspended indefinitely after a 38 year old policeman Filippo Raciti was killed in violence after a game between Sicilian teams Catania and Palermo.

Earlier these goals from Mancini,Simone Perrotta and David Pizarro had given Roma a 3 -1 win over A C Milan in a semi final of the Italian Cup.Alberto Gilardino scored for A C Milan…and Ronaldo got there too late to make any difference – not that he is going to be playing for them for a while yet.The two-legged Cup final was scheduled to be played on April 18 and May 9 between Roma and Inter Milan.
However it has been announced that all matches, professional and amateur, scheduled for this weekend would be cancelled and that the suspension was likely to be indefinite.

Next week’s friendly international between Italy and Romania in Siena was also called off by Football federation (FIGC) chief Luca Pancalli
“One day is not sufficient,” said Pancalli. “Without drastic measures, we can’t play again.We will immediately set up a commission to discuss the situation between sport and politics. Its not possible to carry on like this. If this is football, then I’m stopping everything.I cannot find the words to describe a 38-year-old man who lost his life in such a way. All the football authorities I spoke to agreed that we had to stop everything. This is completely unacceptable.”