Judgement day for Inter
Inter Milan will today find out just how costly their abandoned Champions League quarter-final against AC Milan at the San Siro will prove to be.
UEFA face a test of their determination to come down hard on football hooliganism when a disciplinary panel deliver their verdict on Tuesday night’s disgraceful scenes.
Inter have been charged by UEFA after AC Milan’s keeper Dida was struck and burned by a flare thrown during a barrage of missiles during the derby.
At the very least Inter will be thrown out of this season’s competition but that is hardly a severe punishment considering they were 3-0 down on aggregate with 17 minutes left to play.
Attention will focus on what other action the disciplinary panel will take, given that in 2001 Inter were ordered to play two European home matches away from the San Siro and fined £35,000 after similar crowd trouble at their UEFA Cup game with Spanish side Alaves.
With growing concern both in UEFA and FIFA at the problem of football-related violence in Italy, there are many senior figures in the game who believe the disciplinary body need to take a very firm line.
Earlier this season, Roma received a two-match stadium ban and heavy fine after referee Anders Frisk was hit by a missile and abandoned the game, but that was viewed as a first offence.
One senior UEFA figure told the Press Association: “There is an expectation that Inter should be dealt with properly – if it is just another stadium ban and fine people may view that as UEFA letting them off lightly, and that is not the message we should be sending out.”
There is a precedent for expulsion in that another club Fiorentina were thrown out of the UEFA Cup in 1998 after a home-made explosive device hurled from the crowd during the match against Swiss side Grasshoppers injured the fourth official and caused the match to be abandoned.
Were UEFA to expel Inter, currently third in Serie A, from next season’s competition the club would almost certainly appeal – such a ban would in effect cost the Italian club around €15m in television and prize money alone.
