Well if he was the Safety Officer at a club in Italy at the minute he would be having a heart attack.
Players in Italy are thinking of striking and delaying matches by about 15 to 30 minutes in Serie A, B, C and C1. This is because the players in these 4 divisions are starting to fear for their safety. I cant blame them.
What is already looking to be a good Italian season is starting to get ruined by such issues. The decision to finally hold the strike came when Francesco Baldini of Napoli was set up on by disgruntled fans who beat him up and then set about destroying his car. This was after Napolia had drawn 0-0 at home to Palermo in Serie B.
This was not the first incident of the same kind. In September after the season had just begun Jonathan Zebina of Roma was attacked by fans outside of Roma's training ground, he had to thank a prompt policeman for saving him. Other such victims have been Nicola Corrent of Como, he was also attacked by fans after training in November.Salernitana had to deal with 3 injuries, Domenico Botticella, Alfonso Camorani and Carlo Cherubini were all injured when Catania fans smashed the windows of the team bus, what is probably most suprising is Catania had beaten Salernitana 2-1!
However the most sickening and by far the most serious incident came during Cagliari's home game against Messina on the 17th of November.
The match was suspended after 82 minutes due to a pitch invasion by one fan, the fan didnt just invade the pitch he took it upon himself to hit Messina keeper Emanuele Manitta so hard round the back of the head that he was knocked unconscious. As play was down the other end the fan managed to climb the stadium barrier back into the crowd without being caught.
Thanks to television footage the fan, Massimo Meloni, was found and arrested then banned from attending football matches for 5 years.
That is probably the most disturbing thing, the fact he was only banned for 5 years. Give him a life ban I say.
The worrying thing is if someone can climb a fence and hit a player then climb back what must that leave the players thinking. They don't want to be on the field of play looking over their shoulder every 10 seconds!
I think the Safety Officer at Aggborough should consider himself very lucky to be just having to deal with the odd naughty word instead of vicious attacks by mindless idiots who probably don't even like football and just go in the hope there will be a fight or that they can start one off.
No professional club has neither the room or the time to deal with the morons!
