It was March 2004. The ground was the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. The match – The ‘Rome Derby’ aka ‘The Derby della Capitale between Lazio and Roma.
My son, a Lazio fan, worked in Rome and I had flown over to celebrate his birthday the day before and to go to the match the following day.
The match is always fiercely contested by both the players and fans. As we made our way towards the ground you could smell the faint aroma of tear gas and hear thunder-flashes being set off, but there was a lot more to come !!!
When we got to the ground my son left us to go into the Curva Nord, the Lazio end. The other end of the ground is called the Curva Sud and is the Roma end as both teams play their home games in this stadium. The rest of us made our way to the Tevere where we had seats overlooking the halfway line.
As the ground began to fill up – so did the level of chanting from both sets of supporters. As the game started it became apparent that ‘all was not well’!!
A rumour, which was later confirmed as false, spread around both sets of supporters that a boy had been run over by a police car and had died.
This ‘news’ incensed both sets of supporters and increased the level of chanting.
This time not towards each other but at the police. Even more thunder-flashes were let off, some onto the pitch and the match had to be stopped several times to remove them.
As the second half began most of the fans at Lazio’s end started chanting “murderers!!” at the police and demanded that the game be stopped.
After several interventions from fan representatives of both sides (including key members of the main Roma Ultras group going onto the pitch) the referee suspended play.
Repeated announcements over the public address system reiterated that no major incident had occurred.
As we left the stadium we had to walk through areas where tea gas was still lingering in the air, police vehicles and even ambulances had been set on fire – despite being a Chelsea season ticket holder back in the day this was possibly the craziest matchday experience I have ever witnessed.
Following the game there were 15 arrests and 24 people hurt, but none seriously.
It really was a match to remember, but not for the right reasons!!!
PS – It was 0-0 when the game was abandoned.
