The ugly fracas between Valencia and Inter players at the end of Tuesday's Champions League match is likely to draw a tough response from a Uefa tired of controversy, writes Paddy Agnewin Rome
Dane Jost, the general secretary of the football association of Slovenia, is not exactly a European household name. And yet, right now, a lot of football fans in Milan and Valencia have good reason to hang onto his every word.
Jost, you see, served as the representative for European football's ruling body, Uefa, at last Tuesday night's Champions League clash between Spanish club Valencia and their Italian opponents, Inter Milan. Given that the match ended in an unedifying bout of fisticuffs, poor old Jost was just about the last man out of the Mestalla stadium, since he opted to stop and study the TV footage of the on-pitch battle.
When Uefa's control and disciplinary body sits down in Nyon, Switzerland, next Wednesday to deal with the Valencia-Inter fracas, much attention will be paid to Jost. As of now, at least five players - Carlos Marchena and David Navarro of Valencia as well as Julio Cruz, Ivan Cordoba and Maicon of Inter - all risk hefty suspensions, while both clubs could be looking at hefty fines, with Valencia perhaps even being ordered to play their next Champions League tie, a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Chelsea, at a neutral venue. One Spanish commentator even suggested this week that Valencia might even be kicked out of the tournament, but for the time being that seems far-fetched.
What is sure, however, is that Uefa did not much enjoy having their mega-hyped, mega-watched and mega-financed premier tournament besmirched by the post-match brawl. As a tough, dour game ended 0-0, with the elimination of Inter (beaten on away goals after drawing the first leg of the tie ended 2-2 in Milan), Marchena and Inter's Argentine defender Nicolas Burdisso appeared to exchange insults on the halfway line.
For a second, it looked as though the insults would become serious fisticuffs. Other players gathered around, as they tend to do at such moments. Things were tense but would probably have calmed down had Valencia substitute David Navarro not had the bad idea of getting up off the bench and running onto the pitch, where he delivered a spectacular punch to Burdisso's face, catching the Inter player unawares and leaving him with a broken nose and a black eye in the process.
At that point, Navarro decided that discretion might be the better part of valour and he made a hasty retreat for the Valencia dressing room, hotly pursued by Cruz, Cordoba and Maicon, who all tried (and failed) to kick him. Nor did things calm down when Navarro reached the "safety" of the dressing room, since other Inter players - including reserve goalkeeper Francesco Toldo - tried (and failed again) to corner him there, presumably for the purpose of dispensing some summary justice.
Unfortunately for Uefa, nearly all of this bad-tempered farce was caught on camera. We say "unfortunately" because Uefa will now have to be seen to do something, and perhaps something fairly drastic. Uefa (and just about every other football authority in Europe) is currently worried about fan violence.
Just last month, a police inspector, Filippo Raciti, was killed by fans during riots at a Catania versus Palermo derby game in Sicily, Italy. Last November, a Paris Saint-Germain supporter was shot dead by a policeman in an alleged self-defence action during scuffles after the Paris side's Uefa Cup match against Hapoel Tel Aviv in Paris. In the same month, fans of Dutch side Feyenoord rioted so badly during another Uefa Cup game, this one against French club Nancy, that Uefa subsequently threw Feyenoord out of the tournament. The seriousness of the moment was summed up by Italian sports minister Giovanna Melandri who commented after the Valencia-Inter game: "This was a very serious business. I expect a tough response from Uefa, Italian football made a show of itself. It was mortifying to see what happened after the game, something that went in totally the opposite direction from what we all would like to see. Footballers are role models closely observed by fans and children and we look to them to behave correctly and tolerantly."
IRONICALLY, HOURS BEFORE the match, the Italian Senate had approved a bill adopting tough measures to deal with football fan violence, a measure introduced in the wake of the Raciti killing in Catania.
Even as Navarro was busy sending a text message of apology to Burdisso, an apology apparently accepted by the Inter player, the new boss of European football, former ace player Michel Platini, was calling for the formation of a European police force that would deal not only with fan violence but also with problems such as illegal betting and slush funds in contemporary football.
"With the help of governments, we need to form a sort of Europol to fight against these problems." All very fine and true, Michel, but in this case the hooligans were out there on the pitch. Were Inter Milan just bad losers? Were Valencia unsporting winners? Uefa may well decide that it was a bit of both. The governing body may even hand out exemplary heavy punishments next Wednesday, but that is unlikely to change the unwritten code by which players act in such a situation. That "code" calls for everyone to stick together and help out the player under "attack". Burdisso, the man with the broken nose, summed it up the next day when he said: "Navarro hit me from behind and that's not the way a real man should behave. However, I'd have to say that I was pleased with the team's reaction, that showed that we are a truly united group of players." Over to Uefa and over to you, Jost.