How Many More Italian Football Fans Have To Die?

The world of football is again mourning another tragic loss of life tonight after Italian police shot dead a 26 year old Lazio supporter during a disturbance between rival sets of fans. The dead fan was 26 year old disc jockey Gabriele Sandri who was amongst a group of Lazio fans who got into an altercation with a travelling group of Juventus fans at a motorway service station outside Arezzo in Italy. As a riot between the two sets of fans seemed about to get out of hand an Italian policeman seems to have fired a shot which tragically and accidentally hit Mr. Sandri and killed him. Lazio's game against Inter Milan was subsequently called off after news of the fatal shooting made it's way to the clubs and Italian government. In another dark day for Italian football the senseless killing of an unarmed football fan wasn't the only ugly incident as Atalanta fans fought with police before and during the first seven minutes of their club's game with AC Milan and after trying to storm the pitch the referee abandoned the game due to concerns for the safety of all concerned. Lazio's city neighbours AS Roma also cancelled their game in Rome against Cagliari in a show of solidarity for the fans of Lazio. Italian football seems to lurch from one murder to another, one crisis to another and there seems to be no-one either in the country's football administration or government willing to take harsh enough steps to combat the growing problems in Italian society which are manifesting themselves amongst football supporters. For too long has football hooliganism been called the "English disease" by continental Europeans happy to tar English football fans with the sins of their predecessors thirty years ago. Italy has an enormous problem and it's time someone took up the reins of power and sorted it out before another innocent football fan or policeman is murdered in the name of football.