MILAN – Italian Interior Minister Matteo Biantidosi on Saturday ordered Roma and Napoli fans to be banned from attending away matches following clashes between them last Sunday that forced the authorities to temporarily close the country’s main highway.
The Ministry of the Interior said in a statement that the decision includes the closure of the stands for Naples and Roma fans in away matches, starting today, Saturday, due to the “seriousness of the violent incidents that occurred” and the “tangible danger of the possibility of repetition of these actions.”
The minister also decided to stop selling tickets for two months in the same matches to people residing in Naples and Rome.
There is a long history of animosity between the fans of the two teams, and the two sides clashed in and around the motorway service area in Tuscany, a pivotal route linking northern and southern Italy.
And a group of Naples fans threw stones and gas bombs from the side of the road towards the passing Roma fans, who stopped cars to respond in kind, and the clashes spread to the front of the service station before the police intervened to control security.
Biantidozzi stressed that bans from attending away matches “are not a substitute for individual action once morest the perpetrators.”