Ivan The Terrible Dominates Night Of Shame

Game 32: Italy – Serbia (abandoned at 0-0 after six minutes)

Another day spent in internet cafes preceded what should have been a fascinating Euro 2012 qualifier yesterday as Italy prepared to face a Serbia side who would surely have given them their toughest test yet since that embarrassing shambles of a World Cup campaign. But instead what transpired was a frustrating evening of shame, prompting delays, Plan Bs and all too little football.

After finishing work at 5pm, I headed from the port area of Genoa towards the Marassi for a game I’d been looking forward to for weeks. With Serbia boasting names such as Milos Krasic, Dejan Stankovic, Neven Subotic and Branislav Ivanovic, this had seemed set to be one of the best international matches I’d ever witnessed.

Having walked past a group of jovial enough Serbian fans in the square outside the Palazzo Ducale, I had little warning of what was to follow. After collecting my ticket for the match, I headed for a nearby bar to watch the end of the Azzurrini’s European Championship hopes. I’d seen the first half whilst working, as they quickly lost their 2-0 first leg advantage. An eventual 3-0 extra-time defeat sealed their fate.

When making my way inside the Luigi Ferraris I helped myself to some of the free food on offer before taking my seat. Eventering the arena, it was immediately apparent that the away support had stepped over the line from vocal to intimidatory, with two fans sat on the top of the tall barrier separating the tribuna from the field of play.

When the players were leaving the pitch after their warm-up the issues escalated. With one of the fans – Ivan Bogdanov, as we’d soon find out – still sat on top of the barrier, several flares were being thrown onto the pitch. Police surrounded the away section, but could clearly do very little to stop the onslaught. How the flares had been allowed to be smuggled in in the first place is a question the Italian authorities need to ask long and hard.

With referee Craig Thomson rightly having decided to delay kick-off all hell broke loose. The flares continued to be thrown into the home areas in large number, as well as at the approaching police line, while some fans in the top tier were charging the thick partition separating them from home supporters. Normally I would be sat somewhere around the halfway line, but on such a busy night I’d instead been place nearer the Curva Sud, which was something of a blessing in disguise as I was now far enough away to not be overly concerned about my personal safety.

After a delay of around 25 minutes, the players came back out for an impromptu warm-up. The problem for me now was that I had nowhere to stay in Genoa and if the match was to go ahead with a heavy delay I would end up either having to leave at half-time or having to arrange somewhere to stay. A quick call to Dov took care of the accommodation question, as he agreed to put me up at hios place in Savona if it became necessary.

When play eventually started (after they’d ridiculously decided to go ahead with the national anthems in what was now a seething cauldron of an atmosphere) it took only six minutes for the Serbs to begin releasing flares again. The play was stopped… the referee met with officials from both associations… the players were taken off.

With that I left, eager to jump on as early a train as possible in order to avoid being in the general vicinity of the ground when the Serbs were eventually allowed to move towards the exit. After Dov confirmed by phone that the match had been officially abandoned, I arrived at Brignole station to find I’d not long since missed a train. With over an hour to kill, I found a bar just alongside a restaurant I’d seen Juventus director Giuseppe Marotta walk into moments earlier. An hour later, refreshed and replenished, I caught the train home having seen a negligible amount of football, but a hell of a lot more than I’d bargained for.