Following violent clashes at the weekend at various matches including Lazio-Livorno, Palermo-Messina, and Perugia-Ternana (it’s not confined solely to the big Serie A matches), Interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu threatened to take serious action against both fans and clubs.

Then, on Tuesday night there were the absurd and shocking scenes from the San Siro stadium as Inter and AC Milan clashed in a Champions League derby. The AC Milan goalkeeper Dida was struck and injured by a flare thrown from the Inter curva.

The return leg of the Champions league quarter-final between Juventus and Liverpool, in Turin, played last night, was always going to be problematic – being the first competitive meeting between the sides in Turin since the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster. Predictably there were clashes before the game, including car burnings, molotov cocktails and violent clashes between fans and police.

Yesterday morning, Pisanu met with Berlusconi to discuss the situation. Berlusconi “urged him to take a firm line, paying particular attention to means of prevention, without though excluding more drastic measures”[1]. The debate revolves, amongst other things, around whether Pisanu should order grudge matches like Juventus-Liverpool, Inter-Milan, or Lazio-Livorno be played behind closed doors, in empty stadiums.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns the AC Milan football club. His Mediaset television network runs a pay-per-view digital sports channel.