Serie A club Genoa have been hit with a 30,000 euro fine and seen striker Giuseppe Sculli banned for a month, the disciplinary commission of the Italian league announced Tuesday.
The sanctions relate to dramatic incidents during Genoa's league game at home against Siena last April when hardline 'ultra' fans, having seen their side concede four goals, began to cause trouble in the stands.
Fans launched flares and demanded the shirts off the Genoa players' backs because they deemed the players not worthy of wearing them. All of the players, except Sculli, gave in to the demands.
Sculli, who is known to be the grandson of a notorious Calabrian mafia boss, then went to the stands to negotiate the return of the players' shirts.
The on-loan Lazio striker negotiated personally with the apparent leader of the ultras and after a delay of around 45 minutes the game resumed and went on to finish 4-1 in Siena's favour.
Genoa, fearing violent reprisals, then moved camp to Milan for the days leading up to their next league fixture.
League bosses had originally sought a 300,000 euro fine for the club and a ban of three months for Sculli. The prosecutor claimed Sculli had known all along about the planned protests.
A statement on www.legaseria.it Tuesday said the disciplinary commission had considered sanctioning the entire team, but decided to ban only Sculli because of his "personal role" in the matter.
Source: AFP
