Tuesday, February 06, 2007

At The Match

Pictures of Catania on the ten o'clock news. The funeral of a policeman, murdered after a football match; the elephant statue and the cathedral; tight, sooty streets made of black lava rock.

It was late March, almost four years ago to the day. A few weeks after a comedy riot at Siracusa, a couple of months since Inter Milan supporters had smuggled a whole scooter into the upper tiers of the San Siro. Catania were fighting to stay in Serie B back then. I sat behind the goal with Johan in the cheapest part of the ground. A sunny afternoon, a young girl bounced a ball off the concrete steps while her father watched the game through marijuana smoke. Triestina scored twice in the last five minutes, the atmosphere turned completely and grown men hurled themselves against high perspex screens built to keep them off the pitch. The away supporters were caged in and protected by nets above and on both sides. Someone told me a Messina fan had been killed by a missile the previous year.

It shouldn't have taken another death to finally wake people up. It's been coming for a long time.

No comments: