Fair play wanted in Italian Serie A (News Feature)

By Alberto Cagliano Nov 25, 2009, 8:48 GMT

   Rome - Those who struggle to convey the idea that sport is a great way to educate the young keep having a hard time in Italy.

   Sentences from a sports judge relating to the weekend games included a 20,000 euros fine handed down on Juventus, whose fans, the judge wrote, 'on four occasions during the (Sunday) game addressed insulting chants that evoked violence toward a footballer.'

   The player in question is Inter Milan's Mario Balotelli, who will be in Turin with his side on December 5 for a match between the two top contenders for the Serie A title.

   There had been speculations that the chants had racist implications as Balotelli, who has African origins, was booed last season in Turin, prompting a one-game ban for Juve's pitch.

   This time, Juve's die-hard fans used a childish chant to wish him death.

   The good news, so to say, is that Juve tried, quite unsuccessfully, to deter their fans through the stadium's loudspeakers.

   Racism aside, insults towards players and officials are common fare in Italian stadiums.

   Juve's veteran defender Fabio Cannavaro, who captained Italy to the 2006 World Cup title, agreed that the incidents 'are not pleasant and should be eliminated from stadiums.'

   Fair play from the stands, meanwhile, went begging also in Palermo, where fans repeatedly used a laser beam to disturb the sight of the goalkeeper of guests Catania.

   The fine for Palermo was 15,000 euros for an incident that is not new in Italy's football stadiums either.

   Looking at players' behaviour, the judge suspended Inter's Brazilian defender Douglas Maicon for two games because he 'repeatedly addressed a game official with an insulting expression' - all of the above taking place in injury time, over an out-of-bound call, with Inter leading 3-1 over minnows Bologna.

   Inter have appealed the ban after their president Massimo Moratti made some debatable, and self-contradictory, comments on the issue.

   'I don't know what happened. I was not at the stadium, but,' Moratti said, 'I have been told that Maicon maintains not to have told bad words to the linesman, but to have debated (his call). There was a misunderstanding.'

   Moratti also said he hoped that 'the ban won't be of two games, as the rules state in such cases' - seemingly expecting an exception for the reigning champions.

   More educational behaviour from footballers was to be found in Naples, where Napoli fans in late October tried to distract the AC Milan's goalkeeper with a laser.

   Napoli defender Leandro Rinaudo and Lazio's Argentine striker Julio Cruz each received a three-game ban for a bar room-style fight that the judge used television footage to analyse.

   Cruz bit the arm of Rinaudo, who with one hand pulled the opponent's hair while hitting him on the head with the other.