MILAN, April 12 - Italian police are setting up
special units to cope with any troublemakers at Wednesday's
Champions League match between Juventus and Liverpool amid fears
Italian fans may seek revenge for the 1985 Heysel Stadium
disaster.
The quarter-final, second leg game comes 20 years after 39
mostly Italian supporters died during crowd trouble before the
1985 European Cup final when Juventus met Liverpool.
"The situation requires careful attention," Angelo Agovino,
a police chief in the province of Turin, told a news conference
on Tuesday.
"All the security forces are being reinforced and other
special units are being set up to prevent the opposing fans from
meeting and starting trouble," he was quoted as saying by
Italian news agency ANSA.
Sale of alcohol has been banned in Turin and neighbouring
provinces for the game and the elite undercover police unit,
Digos, is putting strict security and surveillance in place.
Last week's first-leg at Anfield, which Liverpool won 2-1,
saw the English supporters call for friendship between the two
clubs and the city's local newspaper offered a full front page
apology for the role of Liverpool fans in the disaster.
A minority of Juventus supporters turned their backs on a
banner declaring 'Memory and Friendship' and there have been
fears that hardcore fans, organised in gangs called 'ultras',
may seek revenge in the return leg at the Delle Alpi stadium.
PRIVATE CEREMONY
In the spirit of reconciliation between the teams and their
fans Juve held a private ceremony at the club's headquarters on
Tuesday to honour the supporters who lost their lives before the
May 29 final in Brussels, which the Italians won 1-0.
"We were brought here by our wish to remember and honour the
Bianconeri friends who were victims of such tragedy and to
express to their families solidarity and affection from all the
Juventus world," said Juve president Franzo Grande Stevens.
The ceremony, held in front of a monument commissioned by
Juve and inaugurated the year after the tragedy, was a chance
for the club to meet the families of those who died after a wall
collapsed following crowd trouble before the game.
Liverpool were represented by president David Moores and
chief executive Rick Parry, while Juve chief executive Antonio
Giraudo and vice president Roberto Bettega were in attendance.
At the end of the ceremony the current club captains,
Alessandro Del Piero and Sami Hyypia, laid 39 white roses at the
base of the monument designed by architect Dante Grassi,
Juventus reported on their official website.
"Heysel is a wound that you can never remove but I believe
that our fans will have the intelligence and the wisdom to
accept the apology made by Liverpool," said Del Piero.
"Liverpool as a club and its fans have made their apology
and shown their sadness, I hope that spirit will be stronger
than rancour," he was quoted as saying by ANSA.
Liverpool's captain at the time of the Heysel disaster, Phil
Neal, and his team mate Ian Rush were also at the ceremony.
(Additional reporting by Simon Evans)