Believe it or not, but the Italians are going for an English job when it comes to stadium security, writes Matt Barker
For most of this year the Italian press, spearheaded by a campaign in La Gazzetta dello Sport, have been calling for the introduction of a stewarding system all’inglese and the removal of perimeter fencing in the nation’s stadiums.
The Italian authorities have reacted hard to recent embarrassments, but are also groping their way towards a more positive ‘English solution’, writes Paul Virgo
The shower of flares that halted Internazionale’s Champions League derby with AC Milan triggered some tough talking from the Italian authorities. Police have been instructed to call off matches at the first sign of trouble, inside or outside the stadium. Likewise, the Italian federation (FIGC) has given referees instructions to suspend matches if fans hurl flares or other missiles. Turnstile checks have been beefed up to make it more difficult to smuggle flares or offensive banners into the grounds. Teams whose fans are responsible for trouble causing a match to be abandoned will automatically lose the game 3‑0. If the trouble involves both sets of fans, both teams lose 3‑0.
Dave Jennings went to Bradford’s last match of the season in 1985 and lived to tell the tale, but 56 of his fellow supporters died in the fire that engulfed Valley Parade
On the morning of May 11, 1985, it felt great to be a Bradford City supporter. The club had been rattling around in the bottom two divisions of the Football League for 58 years, but at last City were moving on up. The Third Division championship was already ours, so the final game of the campaign was meaningless in competitive terms. But 11,076 turned out anyway for the home match against Lincoln. We Bradford fans wanted to celebrate and watch captain Peter Jackson collect the Division Three trophy.
For a £30million footballer, Rio Ferdinand is going to need to start showing class off the pitch, writes Ashley Shaw, as well as on it
Any footballer who associates himself with Jody Morris is looking for trouble. The turning point in PFA player of the year John Terry’s career was probably the night he opted to stay in when Morris and his pals were urging him to join their latest bender. England centre-half Rio Ferdinand, by contrast, seems to court publicity and, following successive tabloid stings involving Peter Kenyon and a fight with a photographer on a night out with Morris, it seems he doesn’t learn. Ferdinand has the millionaire lifestyle – the car, the clothes and presumably the women – but he lacks the vital component required to take the next step to football greatness: common sense. Morris, who has a conviction for assault and was sacked by Leeds for being drunk at training, is the personification of the current football disease – so why would a player of Rio’s standing think that a night on the tiles with him in celebrity central was a great idea?
Europe's minnows can sleep easy for now as Leinart Johannsson saw his UEFA presidential term extended. But according to Steve Menary, it's only delaying the inevitable
Europe’s minor nations can breathe a sigh of relief as doomsday has been temporarily averted. At last month’s congress in Tallinn, UEFA changed procedures for replacing Lennart Johansson as president and delayed Franz Beckenbauer’s seemingly inevitable advance to European football’s top job.