‘BE LIKE THATCHER TO STOP THUGS IN ITALY’
THE owner of Napoli has called on Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to show “the courage” of Margaret Thatcher to stamp out hooliganism after chaos in the city on Wednesday night.
Aurelio De Laurentiis also compared Napoli’s ground to an “English stadium” from the bad old days and said there was “guerilla warfare” in the city.
Eintracht Frankfurt fans were banned for the second leg of the Champions League tie in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, but hundreds still travelled to Naples to join up with Atalanta Ultras.
There were running battles with home supporters, and eight people have been arrested – five Italian and three German.
The trouble erupted just eight days before England play a Euro 2024 qualifier in the city.
Napoli president De Laurentiis, right, said: “Families must go to the stadium, not those who want to deal or smoke marijuana.
“Probably these people who shouted, ‘We are Naples’ were outside the stadium... chasing the Germans in the city or doing guerrilla warfare with the police. Maradona was an English stadium.
“Now politics must face the problem and I hope that Meloni will do like the only Prime Minister who has had the courage: the English one Margaret Thatcher.
“In Europe there are tens of millions of fans who must be respected and protected, compared to a violent fringe.” Conservative PM Thatcher sought to crack down on hooliganism in the English game in the Eighties and planned to make ID cards for fans compulsory and limit the attendance of away supporters.