Crackdown on Violent Football Fans: 56 Years of Stadium Bans Issued

Checkmate to violent fans. The State Police of Caserta has identified 14 fans involved in the scuffles that occurred during the football match Casertana – Foggia, played on December 4, 2023, at the "A. Pinto" Stadium in Caserta, valid for the national Lega Pro championship. At the end of the investigative activities, conducted by the DIGOS of the Caserta Police Headquarters, the Police Chief Andrea Grassi issued against them the preventive measure of the ban from accessing places where sports events are held, better known as "daspo". In total, 56 years of stadium entry bans were imposed on the 14 identified fans throughout Italy. For two of them, repeat offenders as they had already been recipients of the same measure in previous years, the measure was adopted with the addition of the obligation to sign, before and after the football matches of their team. During the match, played on the evening of December 4, 2023, parts of both fan groups were responsible for very serious behaviors, dangerous for public order and safety, especially during the interval between the first and second half, which determined the resumption of the match with more than forty minutes of delay. In addition to lighting and throwing smoke bombs and firecrackers, illegally introduced into the facility by evading the filtering operations by the stewards, the fans involved in the scuffles engaged in a mutual throwing of stones and objects, even dismantling part of the concrete of the stands and the coverings of the bathrooms. After tearing down one of the gates, part of the home fan group invaded the playing field trying to reach the visitors' section. The investigations made it possible to fully identify and identify eight supporters of the home team and six visiting fans, responsible, in various capacities, for the crimes of climbing over, throwing and carrying blunt objects, unjustified disguise of the face, and aggravated damage, as well as the injuries suffered by the State Police personnel who intervened in the visitors' section to stop the violent conduct in progress. In the clashes, in fact, six police officers sustained injuries, while, thanks to the intervention of the contingent on public order duty, no injuries were recorded among the spectators.