Fans of an Italian soccer team set fire to the opponent’s stadium after suffering a loss in the first match of the new season of the third division.
The Foggia team lost to its host Taranto with a score of 2-0 in the match that took place at the “Erasmo Iakovon” stadium in the first round of the Italian third division competitions.
Video clips spread on the “X” platform (formerly Twitter) documented the fire igniting and spreading over a wide area of the stadium in a frightening manner.
🔴 Derby Taranto – Foggia que ganaron los locales (Serie C), los ultras visitantes que maron parte del estadio. No hubho heridos.
He invested in the sucedido pero el stadium and his sufrido graveyards.
[GOAL IT] pic.twitter.com/HnBKmYAKwa
— Soy Calcio (@SoyCalcio_) September 5, 2023
The Spanish newspaper “Marca” reported that Foggia fans did not find any way to express their anger at their team’s loss other than burning down the local stadium, and described what happened as an “unparalleled act of sabotage” that would have dire consequences in Italy.
The fire broke out after Ultras Foggia threw several smoke bombs in addition to flammable plastic materials on the southern side of the stands for Taranto fans, but fortunately for everyone, no one was hurt.
Firefighters rushed to the stadium to deal with the fire, but the Foggia ultras went too far and threw stones at them, forcing the police to intervene. Then they accompanied the fans to the city limits of Taranto in order to prevent any possible friction with the local population.
The Italian police are now working to identify the perpetrators of the incident, and have succeeded in identifying some of them through analyzing video clips documented by surveillance cameras.
The Fogia Club issued a statement on its official website in which it condemned the incident and demanded that those responsible be punished.
The statement said, “We hope that the investigation that has already begun will reveal the facts and reveal the nature of the fire and its motives. We stress the need to punish those involved, and we are ready to cooperate with the competent authorities.”
