(Adds details, fans' quotes, background)
By Wladimir Pantaleone
PALERMO, Italy, Feb 8 - Italian police are
questioning a 17-year-old boy over the death of a policeman in
soccer riots in Sicily last week which led to the suspension of
matches all over the country, they said on Thursday.
The policeman died after being hit and having a homemade
explosive thrown into his car as rival fans went on a rampage at
a Serie A derby in Catania last Friday. Police in Sicily would
only identify the suspect as a teenager from Catania.
About 41 people were arrested after the incident, many of
them charged with resisting police offers and causing injuries.
Police have been studying video surveillance tapes at Massimino
stadium in Catania to ascertain who killed their colleague.
All Italian soccer, even youth matches, was suspended after
the policeman's death pending a security review and only the
safest stadiums will be open to fans when matches resume this
weekend.
Italy's government was due to release a list on Thursday of
which stadiums would be allowed to open and which would have to
play behind closed doors until they improve security.
Only four stadiums in Serie A -- Rome's Olympic, Palermo's
Barbera, Turin's Olympic and the Artemio Franchi in Siena -- are
believed to meet the regulations, which include closed-circuit
TV surveillance, numbered seating and electronic turnstiles.
The rest, including Milan's San Siro -- home to AC Milan and
Inter Milan -- may require varying degrees of work.
Other new security measures include a ban on the block sale
of tickets to away fans, a beefing-up of stadium bans for those
involved in violence, including under 18s, tougher jail terms
and a ban on financial links between clubs and fan associations.
Firecrackers will no longer be allowed inside stadiums and,
at least initially, there will be no late-night matches.
Clubs are calling it an overreaction to an isolated incident
-- though officer Filippo Raciti's death was the second in a
week in Italian soccer, after an amateur league official was
kicked to death while trying to stop a fight at a match.
But some fans think Italian soccer needs an even tougher
lesson to stop the violence, much of it generated by hardcore
fans known as "Ultras".
"They should stop soccer not just for one day but a whole
year -- it's the only way these people will understand," Rome
soccer fan Marco Turchi told Reuters television.
"Until we begin to touch the interests of the clubs nothing
will change," said another, Giuseppe Martini.