Consequences
Following the riots, the government announced its willingness to harshen the current football stadia act, also known as Pisanu decree (Italian: Decreto Pisanu) after former Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Pisanu, who enacted the law in 2005. In its original form, the Pisanu decree required Italian mayors and football clubs to meet specific safety standards in their stadiums; however, these have been ignored by most of Serie A and B clubs, meaning that the majority of Italian football venues, including Catania, did not comply with these standards. Former Minister of the Interior Giuliano Amato officially permitted departures from these standards for the 2006/2007 football season. The events in Catania, however, led Minister Amato, and Minister of Sports Giovanna Melandri, to immediately cancel every derogation, thus forcing teams to play "behind closed doors" (forbidding the presence of spectators for every venue not within the law), including Stadio San Siro in Milan, Stadio San Paolo in Naples and Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence. Catania were banned from playing in their stadium for the remainder of the season, and will have to play the remainder of their home fixtures at a neutral venue. The Catania club was successively punished by the Italian Football Federation with the obligation not to play its home matches in its home stadium, and additionally with no spectators (a porte chiuse). This was however partially overturned on April 4 by the TAR (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale, regional administrative court) of Catania, which decided the Football Federation should allow spectators to take part on the team's home matches. The decision was overturned by the TAR of Rome some days later, but re-overturned by the Catania TAR in mid-April; this caused the delay of the league match Catania vs Ascoli, originally scheduled to be played on April 22 in Modena with no spectators' presence. The match was rescheduled on May 2. In the end, the FIGC allowed Catania supporters to attend the two final "home" matches against AC Milan and Chievo, both played at Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna.
Other countermeasures provided by the government include a ban on rockets, smoke-producers and firecrackers at sports events, the prohibition of night-matches for the entire month of February 2007, a ban on the block sale of tickets to away supporters, and the so-called "preventive Daspo" (where Daspo stands for "Prohibition to Participate to Sports Events"), which allows the police force to precautionarily ban suspected hooligans from attending football matches. Clubs will also be forbidden to make financial or working relationships with the fan associations. The Amato decree which included all such measures was finally ratified by the Senate on April 4, only five days short of its expiration (in Italy, a governmental decree must be ratified by both the chambers of the Parliament in sixty days).
On February 10, the San Siro in Milan was declared safe enough to host the match of the next day.
On September 2, Stadio Massimino finally reopened its door since the tragic events causing Raciti's death, hosting a Serie A 2007-08 game between Catania and Genoa, after the venue underwent major work to fulfil the newly-introduced safety regulations. Raciti's widow Marisa Grasso attended the match, and one minute silence was observed before the starting whistle to honour the inspector's memory.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Catania Football Violence
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