Lazio tragedy causes postponement

The Serie A game between FC Internazionale Milano and S.S. Lazio was postponed after a Lazio fan was accidentally shot dead by a police officer attempting to break up an incident between Lazio and Juventus supporters at a motorway service station at Badia al Pino in Tuscany.

Postponed
Lazio fans were travelling to Milan for the game against Inter, while Juventus supporters were on their way to their league fixture against Parma FC when the incident occurred. After emergency talks between the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Italian government it was decided that Lazio's game with Inter should be postponed, with the kick-off in all of the other Serie A matches delayed by ten minutes. The match between Atalanta BC and AC Milan was postponed after seven minutes following disturbances by Atalanta fans, while the later game between AS Roma and Cagliari Calcio was called off.

'Tradegy'
Giancarlo Abete, president of the FIGC, said: "We decided to postpone the game between Inter and Lazio to mourn the death of the Lazio fan. We are still trying to discover what actually happened. At the moment it does not seem similar to other previous football-related incidents. Apparently it was a clash between two small groups of fans and probably not even for sporting reasons. The attempt to stop this clash became a tragedy." The chief of Arezzo police, Vincenzo Giacobbe, said: "It was a tragic mistake. I want to express my pain and my commiserations to the family of the person."