Are Serie A crowds in decline?
Definitely, and the violence and racism are on the increase. It is not really a fun experience to go to a game in Italy. It is a scary experience. The crowds are definitely falling. Juve’s are a complete joke and the authorities do not know what to do about it. They have not got the idea that there is actually something structurally wrong here. Is Italy too isolated to learn from England in this area? No they talk about the British model a lot but they do not understand it. They have this great myth of the hooligans being eradicated through repression, which I have tried to explain several times is the wrong conclusion. Again and again they give the credit to Thatcher, believe it or not. They have a lot to learn in policing football. From what I have seen they tend to send in the riot police much earlier than we would, the police have guns and there is always the potential for it to get much nastier more quickly. Tell me about it, I was in the Stadio Olimpico in 1997 when the carabinie
