Courtesy of Football Italia
Caso eyes glorious debut
Saturday 11 September, 2004
Mimmo Caso has never Coached a Serie A side before and has every intention of starting with a Lazio victory in Genoa.
“We can amaze everyone this season,” assured the Biancocelesti boss. “I am convinced of it. Against Sampdoria we have the chance to prove what we’re made of.”
The Capital club has been severely weakened by the summer sales, as Stefano Fiore, Bernardo Corradi, Demetrio Albertini, Jaap Stam, Giuseppe Favalli, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Claudio Lopez all left to help replenish their coffers.
“I am confident because I saw the lads working so hard throughout the week and I must thank everyone, both the veterans and the new arrivals, for making my job a lot easier.”
Caso is preparing for his own Serie A debut in a tough stadium like the Luigi Ferraris, but he doesn’t show any nerves.
“Sampdoria are not to be underestimated, because they proved last year that they are a solid squad and several of their players earned international caps because of that performance. I believe Samp can repeat that feat, but I also feel that Lazio can go there and win.”
Caso’s injury worries have subsided with news that Cesar has recovered from a bruised hip, while Roberto Muzzi is also closer to 100 per cent fitness.
Lazio squad:
Peruzzi, Sereni, Casazza, Couto, Lopez, Negro, Oddo, Seric, Siviglia, Zauri, Baggio, Cesar, Dabo, A. Filippini, E. Filippini, Giannichedda, Liverani, Di Canio, Inzaghi, Muzzi, Pandev, Rocchi
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FIGC wants Brit style Stadia
Saturday 11 September, 2004
The FIGC and League have set out plans to cut crowd trouble and remove the fences that stand between fans and the pitch within the next few years.
“We aim to lose the reputation as one of the only European nation that still has fences in its Stadia,” announced Federation President Franco Carraro.
Most Serie A arenas still use this form of ‘cage’ to keep the supporters from throwing objects at the pitch, although these are often not enough.
There is some hope for the future, however, as in 2003-04 there was a 40 per cent decrease in incidents of injured fans during football matches in Italy, while police injuries were down 25 per cent.
Throughout the country there were 6,000 games hosting at least 20m supporters, but only 282 injuries compared to the 473 in the 2002-03 campaign.
“We need to reach certain objectives,” continued Carraro, “such as getting families and children back into the Stadium. We can do this with preventative action and quick repression of those who want to turn a sporting event into an arena of chaos and violence.”
There were some particularly notable incidents last season, such as the Rome derby abandoned after fans spread false rumours that a child had been run over by a police van outside the Stadio Olimpico. Both Lazio and Roma hooligans then banded together to attack the police.
Even worse was the Serie B derby between Napoli and Avellino, called off after pre-match crowd trouble resulted in the death of 20-year-old fan Sergio Ercolano, who fell from the stands.
With this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that these two sets of fans were the worst troublemakers in the Peninsula last season. Napoli supporters were involved in 10 violent incidents, followed by Roma with seven.
Atalanta fans took part in six riots with Juventus, Hellas Verona and Inter on five, while Avellino, Livorno and Fiorentina supporters caused trouble in four separate incidents.