The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| Italy football attack stokes fears of neo-fascist violence Posted: 23 Nov 2012 08:14 AM PST  Police in a damaged pub after a fight in downtown Rome, during which 10 Spurs supporters were hurt and one seriously injured. — Reuters pics Italy's capital has been rattled by increasing militancy by the extreme right since October, with weekly demonstrations by the neo-fascist youth group Blocco Studentesco often ending in clashes with police. Local media initially blamed yesterday's attack on hard-core fans or "ultras" supporting Lazio, who Tottenham had travelled to the capital to play in the Europa League. But two supporters of AS Roma, Lazio's bitter city rivals, were among the 15 detained for alleged involvement in the mass attack on a downtown bar, suggesting a possibly different motivation. Tottenham have a large contingent of Jewish fans and witnesses told Italian media that masked men armed with knives and baseball bats shouted "Jews, Jews" as they laid siege to a pub where the Tottenham supporters were drinking in a district popular with tourists in an old quarter of Rome. Ten people were injured in the attack, which left 25-year-old English fan Ashley Mills in a serious condition. He underwent surgery for a severed artery in his leg today and was being monitored by doctors, the Rome hospital where he is being treated said.  A knife left on a street after the fight. Israeli ambassador to Italy Naor Gilon told reporters the attack on Spurs supporters, stemmed from "a new trend of anti-Semitism in Europe". The World Jewish Congress called yesterday for Lazio to be suspended from European football if they failed to take action against hard core anti-Semitic supporters. Media reports said Lazio fans chanted "Juden Tottenham, Juden Tottenham" at the match yesterday. Danger to Jews The violence has sparked a row about the safety of Jewish people in Rome. The head of the city's Jewish community, Ricardo Pacifici, said the attack showed Jews were not sufficiently protected. Police commissioner Giuseppe Pecoraro rejected the accusation, which he called a provocation. "The police do more for the Jewish community in Rome than anywhere else in the world," he said. Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno announced €21 million (RM82.6 million) in funding for a Holocaust Museum "to give an immediate response to the many signs of anti-Semitism that have occurred recently in our city". Alemanno is himself a former neo-fascist youth leader who was greeted with fascist salutes and cries of "Duce! Duce!" — the term adopted by Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini — when he was elected mayor in 2008. The European far right has gained increased support as the continent's economic crisis has deepened, especially in the debt-laden south. Its most startling rise has been in the worst-hit country, Greece, where the anti-immigrant Golden Dawn group has flourished. Italy is no stranger to the trend. Last week police arrested four people for allegedly inciting racial hatred through the website of the white supremacist movement Stormfront, confiscating a variety of weapons and neo-Nazi propaganda, after the group published a list of prominent Jewish citizens. Teenagers carrying neo-fascist flags stormed a high school last month, tossing smoke bombs into classrooms as lessons were being taught, in a raid interpreted in Italy as an attempt by Blocco Studentesco to assert control over its turf. Shortly afterwards a school due to host a meeting with local authorities about the "neo-fascist resurgence in schools" was daubed with swastikas, Celtic crosses and the word "Hitler". There is no suggestion the Blocco is linked to the attack on the Tottenham supporters. "We are proud to be fascists," the 18-year old Rome leader of the Blocco recently told Reuters in a suburban cafe, where swastikas had been scrawled across walls and furniture. The movement venerates 1930s Italian dictator Mussolini but says it does not agree with his racial laws, which stripped Jews of Italian citizenship and barred them from holding government positions in 1938. Racist chants Israeli flags are a common sight among Tottenham supporters at matches, and fans refer to themselves in chants as the "yid army". Lazio have long had fans with extreme right-wing sympathies, notorious for making Nazi salutes, unfurling anti-Semitic banners and chanting racist insults against black players. At the game yesterday, which ended in a goalless draw, Lazio supporters unfurled a banner reading "Free Palestine". The English Football Association plans to send a report to European football's governing body UEFA following alleged anti-Semitic chanting by Lazio fans during the match yesterday. Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas has demanded an investigation. Lazio was fined €40,000 (RM157,290) for racist chanting against black players in another match against Tottenham in London in September. — Reuters |
| City’s Aguero is Premier League’s most lethal striker Posted: 23 Nov 2012 07:38 AM PST  Familiar sight of Aguero, at his last outing after scoring a penalty against Real Madrid during their Champions League match at The Etihad Stadium in Manchester, November 21, 2012. — Reuters pic The Premier League's Opta number crunchers have worked out that the Argentine's 28 goals have come at a rate of one every 111 minutes — better than the likes of Robin van Persie, Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer. Manchester United's Javier Hernandez is second on the list, his 27 coming every 119 minutes while Henry's 175 came at 121-minute intervals. Aguero's City team mates Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli are also in the top 10 as Premier League leaders City head for their clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. After a week of upheaval at the west London club, which has seen Champions League-winning manager Roberto Di Matteo sacked and replaced with former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, Roberto Mancini knows that the fixture — in which City have won only two of the past 15 — is fraught with danger. "I think usually when a team changes the manager the game after is very difficult for the opponents," Mancini said at a news conference today. "It's a more difficult game now. "Chelsea are a good team, whether with Di Matteo or Benitez, they have good players and until three games ago were playing fantastic football so they were on the top. "It will be difficult but we want to do well on Sunday." Mancini expressed some sympathy for his fellow Italian Di Matteo but said it was the nature of the job. "I'm very sorry for Di Matteo because he won the Champions League just a few months ago, but this is our life, we know when we make this choice it can be difficult. "For Chelsea maybe it's a different situation. Every team has its problem and every chairman decides a different way." City captain Vincent Kompany is a doubt for the game after injuring his knee against Real Madrid on Wednesday. "I hope Vinnie can recover but we won't know until tomorrow," Mancini said. "He is strong so there is a chance, but we will make a final decision on Saturday." — Reuters |
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