An ambush with bars, baseball bats and other blunt objects last Saturday in the heart of Rome. But they weren’t the dreaded anarchists present at the demonstration organized in the capital for Alfredo Cospito, but around fifty Serbian fans belonging to the ultras group Delije of the Red Star of Belgrade.
They arrived in Italy with a clear objective. Attacking some Roma ultras, at the end of the Serie A match against Empoli, and returning home with a loot that in the eyes of those unfamiliar with the dynamics of organized support seems of little value. But that for the ultras groups means everything: banners, banners and flags. According to an unwritten rule, losing them means decreeing the dissolution of the organization.
The ambush
“When we intervened there were only two people injured, the attackers disappeared, there were a series of sticks and bars on the ground,” the Rome police headquarters said. One of the wounded was hospitalized with a cut to the head, while the second suffered a brain hematoma.
According to an initial reconstruction circulating within the organized groups of the Romanist Curva Sud, the Serbian ultras would have been hidden behind the flower beds in Piazza Mancini, a stone’s throw from the main entrance to the Olympic stadium. Armed to the teeth and dressed in black from head to toe, they ambushed some fans of the historic Fedayn ultras group. They acted like a quasi-paramilitary organization, silently following the orders of a leader. Then, within seconds, they vanished.
The bars and sticks have been seized and will be analyzed by the police. The Digos is investigating the case, but many are wondering how it was possible that about 50 violent and armed people committed a well-organized attack a stone’s throw from the Olimpico stadium at the end of a football match, at a time when security should be maximum.
The rebound of responsibilities
To try to shed light on the matter, we need to reconstruct the journey of the Red Star ultras. The Serbian fans arrived in Rome evading the police and leaving from Milan, at the end of the Euroleague basketball match between Olimpia and Stella Rossa on Thursday 2 February. According to the Milan police headquarters, there were 1,500 at the basketball match.
The event took place on a regular basis and no gaps in the safety arrangements were identified. Once the match was over, some of the Serbian fans arrived in Rome undisturbed and away from the eyes of the police.
The police headquarters in the capital have little information on the case, as does the central office of the state police. On Sunday, the forces of order paid attention to the flights departing for Belgrade over the weekend. As well as the Roma fans. On Sunday evening, some members of the Fedayeen were in Fiumicino to try to recover the stolen material. From the staff of the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, they do not comment on the case.
A matter of twinning
To understand the reasons for the attack, a premise must be made. In 2018, in the Curva B of Naples, some Serbian fans attended the Champions League match between the Neapolitan team and that of the Red Star, thus sealing a twinning that has been going on for five years. After the killing in Rome of the Neapolitan fan Ciro Esposito at the hands of the Romanist ultras Daniele De Santis, which took place in 2014, a series of European ultras groups have expressed solidarity with Naples by promising revenge. Among them were also fans of Red Star Belgrade.
“Every word is in vain, if there is an opportunity we will have no mercy,” read a Neapolitan banner after Esposito’s death. And the time for revenge seems to have arrived. Less than a month ago, on January 8, about 300 fans from Naples and Rome clashed in a motorway service station on the A1 motorway. Saturday’s events were interpreted as a continuation of that episode of violence.
The risk of escalation
Tensions risk escalating. “We’re running out of death” is the phrase that recurs the most on social media and among ultras groups. The northern curve of Inter, team twinned with Lazio, has published a statement in solidarity with the Romanists. “If it is true that there are no written rules in our world, in our opinion the dynamics of rivalry must be consumed face to face and not with unworthy acts even if coordinated between several people”, reads the press release.
“The one carried out against one of the most historic groups in the Romanist South was certainly not a recent action, but it remains an ambush carried out by many to the detriment of a few, playing on the absolute unpredictability of a gesture carried out in the absence of a direct confrontation », add the Nerazzurri fans.
Now, there is concern in law enforcement, both about football and basketball games. In March, Red Star and Panathinaikos, the Greek team historically twinned with the Roma players, will clash. The fear is that yet another revenge could be consumed.
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