Apparently, fans of the Serie A Napoli team are a bunch of jerks. On Sunday, Napolese hooligans got on a train to Rome to watch Diego Maradona’s former club open the season against AS Roma. But en route, they decided to cause three-quarters of a million dollars in damage to the train, probably thinking it was a good way to pump themselves up for the season. These are the same fans who have not only been banned from other stadiums, but their own, causing their team to play in front of a crowd of none. Huh. Maybe they are just a bunch of “cholera sufferers.”

Several hundred alleged fans of Napoli commandeered and subsequently vandalized a train taking them from Naples to Rome. The damage was estimated at $730,000 as the hooligans slashed seats, smashed windows and exploded firecrackers. Four railway workers were injured.

In the usual too-little-too-late apology that comes out of Italian soccer headquarters with increasing frequency these days, Giancarlo Abete, president of the soccer federation, appealed for a crackdown “against these delinquents who ruin the image of football on a national and international level,” saying, “football is not represented by these people.”

Of course not. We’d say the sport’s more represented by the casual hooligan that breaks no more than $5,000 worth of property over a calender year. Maybe $6,000 if their team makes it to the top of the leaderboard and guarantees themselves a ticket to tournament play.

Hooligans overshadow Italian soccer openers [LA Times]
Image [AFP]