SS Lazio - Tottenham Hotspur - 22/11/2012Source : http://www.football365.com
Lazio deny fans caused troubleLazio have denied their fans were responsible for an attack in a Rome bar that has left one Tottenham fan in a serious condition in hospital.Rome police confirmed that 50 armed hooligans stormed the Drunken Ship pub at 1am before embarking on a brutal attack that left several people injured.
Italian sources said Spurs fan Ashley Mills, born in 1987 and believed to have been stabbed, was seriously injured and was being treated at the city's San Camillo Hospital.
The hooligans rushed the bar armed with knuckle dusters, baseball bats and broken bottles in an attack described as "obviously planned" by officials.
Tottenham fans had been signing and drinking in the Campo de Fiori venue ahead of tonight's Europa League game.
Lazio's notorious 'Ultras' fanbase have been blamed for the attack, however, club president Claudio Lotito tonight denied such allegations, claiming instead "foreigners" were to blame.
"Lazio fans had nothing to do with what happened last night in Campo de Fiori," he said.
"When it emerges who was really responsible, some people will be surprised. It is all too easy to speak about aggression from people whose faces are covered and say that they are Lazio fans.
"This isn't the case. Do you know, for example, that among these criminals, who must be punished in a harsh manner, there were also three foreigners (ie non-Italians)? I maintain that Lazio fans had nothing to do with it."
This evening, a spokeswoman from Rome police confirmed that Mr Mills was "not in danger of death" and would be kept in hospital for observation.
Other injured fans were named as Dave Lesley, Stephen Tierney and Christopher Allen with Tottenham claiming the local police had told them nine fans had been hurt.
"The person who was most seriously injured is not in danger of death and is resting in hospital until tomorrow. He suffered injuries to his skull and thigh," a spokesman said.
Rome police also confirmed that one person had been arrested near the scene of the attacks, without revealing that individual's identity or whether they had been involved in the violence.
The spokesman added: "One person was arrested last night and brought in for interview, having been found in possession of drugs in the vicinity of the Campo dei Fiori."
The pub landlord described the moment when the Spurs fans - who were "well behaved" and "drinking and singing quietly" - were attacked.
Marco Manzi said: "The bar was full of about 30 English supporters at 1am. Most of them were aged between 40 and 50 and they were well-behaved.
"Then arrived what I presume were Italian supporters wearing scooter helmets with their faces covered with scarves carrying stones and rocks. They arrived in the pub and they attacked the English supporters.
"Some of the English supporters tried to escape down Via dei Cappellari and it was in this street where one of them was hit by a knife.
"I think he was quite badly hurt but I don't know any more about him.
"The whole operation from start to finish was over in around 10 minutes. Most of the fans left and the police arrived."
Lifelong Spurs fan Colin McAteer, 59, from Harlow, Essex, said he was worried about the atmosphere surrounding the match, which officials said will have added security.
"It's devastating when people get hurt and stabbed. It makes no sense," he said.
"I am here on a walking stick because of the trouble we had when we were out in Slovenia (when Spurs played in Maribor) ... someone could die from this.
"It's no good. There is no need for that. For what? Bravado? There's no need. You can't hate anybody that much that you want to stab them up. It was quite a surprise."
He added: "We have heard stories that we are going to get picked off when we cross the bridge to the stadium...It's a bad time here."
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Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk
Attack on Spurs fans in Rome: questions asked over role of policeAround 10 Britons taken to hospital after being set upon by large band of Italians wielding iron bars, paving stones and knivesQuestions were being asked on Thursday night about how Italian police failed to prevent a bloody and unprovoked attack on Tottenham Hotspur fans in one of Rome's most heavily frequented – and policed – squares.
A British embassy spokesman said "nine or 10" Britons were taken to hospital after being set upon in a bar by a much larger band of Italians wielding iron bars, paving stones, spanners, knives and other weapons. Some of the assailants were masked or wore motorcycle crash helmets that covered their features, eyewitnesses said.
At least two of the injured were being kept in hospital overnight – one of them suffering from serious head wounds.
Several local residents told Italian media that they heard screams of "Jews" during the attacks. Tottenham Hotspur, with its roots in north London, has long had a large Jewish following.
The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, said an anti-Semitic motive would "heighten the gravity of the attack", which he described as "terrible and disgusting".
Standing with a pint of beer in his hand in the cobbled Campo de' Fiori square where the attack took place, David Phillips from Kettering, Northamptonshire, said the Tottenham fans, in Rome for their side's Europa League fixture with Lazio, had decided to travel to the stadium in large groups. "Everyone's going to stay together so they can't pick us off individually", he said. "We're going to the Metro and we're going to stay there until there are at least a hundred of us, and then go up to the ground."
Campo de' Fiori is a favourite haunt of foreign, mainly young tourists, which has often in the past been the scene of fights and drunken rampages. Phillips said he had been in the square on Wednesday evening before the ambush was sprung.
"There was police everywhere. Where did the police go?" he asked.
The Drunken Ship, where the violence took place, is in one corner of the cobbled square, which also hosts an open-air market. On Thursday afternoon, as workmen picked shattered panes of glass from the doors and piled broken chairs in a corner, a co-owner of the bar, Roberto Mastrangelo, said: "Anything they found they destroyed. It was like a bull charge."
He added: "They must have known that the police leave the square at 1am or 1.30am on weekdays. They arrived just after they left."
But a fellow-owner, Raffaele Manzi, who returned to the Drunken Ship just as the assailants were fleeing, said a patrol car of the municipal police was still parked nearby. He indicated a spot about 15 metres from the entrance, adding: "But there were only two officers, and they couldn't have done anything to stand up to such a large number."
Manzi said he saw about 40 attackers. Others witnesses spoke of up to 100.
Rome's municipal police force is mostly charged with controlling the traffic and enforcing local by-laws. But, like other Italian law enforcement agents, its officers carry firearms.
Another eyewitness, Giuseppe Tamborro, told the newspaper, Corriere della Sera: "The Italians were very organised. They had helmets, iron bars, Balaclava helmets. Some had their faces uncovered. The British were fewer – very few."
He said he saw four people lying on the ground after the attack. One had a scar that went from one side of his forehead to the other. "They had split him open with an aluminium stool taken from the bar", said Tamborro.
The most seriously injured Briton, named by the embassy as Ashley Mills, was said to be conscious and in a satisfactory condition despite having lost large quantities of blood. Sources at the San Camillo hospital said he had a deep head wound which had required 20 stitches, and another injury to the thigh.
At the Santo Spirito hospital by the river Tiber, the director of medical services, Franco Angelini, said one of three Britons admitted following the attack was being kept in for observation for a second night. He had suffered compound fractures in one foot and less serious head injuries.
The raid was initially blamed on Lazio supporters. The club's ultras are notorious for their far-right associations. On more than one occasion, anti-Semitic banners - some bearing references to Auschwitz - have been unfurled before matches in the north stands, the Curva Nord, which they control.
But the first reported arrest was of a rival AS Roma fan, prompting speculation the operation was the product of a temporary pact between neo-fascist supporters of more than one side. Lazio said in a statement there was no basis for linking its fans to the incident.
Six people were being questioned by police. One was reported to have been detained after boasting about the raid on a bus. The driver of the bus photographed him and then informed the police.
The attack is a grave embarrassment to mayor Alemanno, a former member of Italy's neo-fascist movement who was elected as the candidate of Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom People party. A group of his supporters celebrated his victory in 2008 by giving straight-arm salutes on the steps of Rome's city hall.
His opponents seized on Wednesday night's raid to claim Alemanno, who was elected on a law-and-order ticket, had failed to deliver on his campaign promises.
Yesterday at 6:28 pm by UFW Maltchickers
