As the country’s third largest industry, with annual revenue of over $17 billion, the business of soccer (or, in European terms, football) is one of Italy’s most powerful interest groups. And while violence and corruption are familiar to the international game, the situation has deteriorated in the last few weeks. Following a bloody clash between extreme fans (“ultras”) and police on February 2, 2007, commerce has once again proven its role, not only as the superior force in the affairs of Italian football, but also as a detriment to the safety of the game’s own supporters.

During a match between Calcio Catania and U.S. Città di Palermo, ultras armed with metal poles and large firecrackers engaged police outside of Stadio Angelo Massimino. They left one officer dead and over one hundred people injured. Two days later, the president of the Football League, Antonio Mattarese, who represents the financial interest of the clubs, issued this remarkable statement: “The show must go on. Football can never stop. It’s an industry and it pays its price. Deaths in the football system are a part of this huge movement.”

Despite the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) president Luca Pancalli’s decision last Wednesday to “indefinitely suspend” the Italian leagues, club owners got play to resume this past weekend beginning with Serie B on Saturday and Serie A, the upper division, on Sunday. The FIGC, or Italian Football Federation, is the independent governing body of football in Italy.

In the face of the FIGC’s failure to tame team owners, the Italian government passed into law a number of security measures that must be satisfied in order for a club to reopen its stadium to supporters. New guidelines prohibit granting large sections of seats to out-of-town fans, banning individuals who are known to be involved in violence from the stadium, and curtailing links between clubs and fan associations (i.e. the issuance of free tickets to “loyal” fans).

These measures are being strictly enforced. When play resumed peacefully this past weekend, spectators were allowed into just five of eleven Serie B matches. For Serie A, the upper division, four of the ten matches were played behind closed doors.

England once faced a similarly dire situation. “The Hillsborough disaster,” in 1989, resulted in the deaths of 96 Liverpool Football Club fans, and prompted Parliament to pass the Football Spectators Act, which mandated more stringent security at stadiums. This government intervention curtailed violence in what has become known as the “British Model.”

Today, Italy’s stadiums are controlled by the local municipalities in which they are geographically located, as opposed to the clubs themselves. As a result, club owners prod municipalities to pack as many fans into the stadiums as possible, with scant concern for the safety of fans (or damage to the stadium). It fell to the government, in its 2005 legislation, to emulate the British model and require better security.

Former Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu sponsored the law, mandating new standards at football grounds. Venues were obligated to create special police stations, install close-circuit television systems (CCTV) and implement turnstiles for crowd control. Ironically, these precautions comprise only the minimum standard for security throughout Europe.

'Football can never stop. It’s an industry and it pays its price. Deaths in the football system are a part of this huge movement.'

Most club owners were upset with the costs that complying with Pisanu’s effort imposed on them. There was very little incentive to abide by the law due to the lack of enforcement and penalties for non-compliance. Admirably, a handful of clubs did in fact decide to adopt portions of Pisanu’s reform. But Stadio Angelo Massimino did not, with deadly results.

Filippo Raciti, the Sicilian police officer killed last week, was the fifteenth person to die as a result of Italian football violence since 1962. The manager of an amateur team was killed only a week earlier, after attempting to pacify a post-match fight in the southern region of Calabria. However, this was only the second time that Italian play was suspended. The first time was in 1995 when Genoa C.F.C. supporter was stabbed and killed before a game against A.C. Milan.

In 1999, four fans of Salernitana Calcio 1919 died, trapped on a train that was set ablaze by fireworks. The next year, a British fan was stabbed before a UEFA Cup match between A.S. Roma and the British club, Leeds United. And just last year, British supporters of Middlesbrough were severely injured at a pub in Rome moments before their club’s UEFA Cup (Union of European Football Associations) match against A.S. Roma. The perpetrators were led by a man wielding an axe.

The FIGC and the Italian government’s recent efforts are both courageous and honorable. However, league play should have been suspended until all of the stadiums had reached the new benchmarks, rather than opening games on an ad-hoc basis. After that, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) should have founded a special task force dedicated to certifying the Italian stadiums. When all venues had received the grade, only then should play have resumed.

A recent Economist Online article admitted that, “reforming Italian football, like the economy, will take time.” Given the powerful profit motive, both the FIGC and the government have traversed tremendous forces in order to lay claim to their pertinent role in sport by legitimately guaranteeing the safety of police and fans. But there is still room for improvement. If hooliganism is not significantly curbed, there should be no hesitation to remove Italy from the running for the hosting of the 2012 European Championships.

Jonathan Bronitsky is a Researcher in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Image credit: "Fifa 2006 5" by Flickr user Osei (Ozzy)