Serie A threatens to ban Viola fans who watched from a rooftop

Fiorentina’s soul-crushing draw at Pisa was painful enough for all of us, but Serie A’s ready to make it even worse. No, I’m not talking about the €3000 fine that the league’s levied against the Viola for some fans chucking plastic cups into the Pisa supporters’ sections inside the Romeo Anconetani, which is pretty hilarious considering the ugliness that occurred outside the stadium.

Nope, that’s not what’s got the Serie A bigwigs worried. The real problem here, the biggest concern, way beyond the physical violence, is that 3 teenage Fiorentina fans dragged some Ikea-looking chairs to a nearby rooftop and watched the game over the arena walls. You know, the most criminal behavior imaginable. I mean, look at these hardened scofflaws, these terrors whose conduct endangers the lives of everyone in Italy.

Here’s another view if you’re so inclined. These kids are perched on the roof of an apartment building right over the Curva Nord, where Pisa’s ultras hang out.

The authorities briefly roused from their naps to condemn these kids for inciting the home fans, who were so incensed they tried to storm the building to reach them, necessitating police intervention. That’s apparently sufficient grounds to invoke a DASPO on the two teens who’ve been identified on social media.

The DASPO (Divieto di Accedere alle manifestazioni SPOrtive) is a protocol for banning fans from sporting events for provoking violence or racism in stadia. Applying it to this situation is a stretch, as simply sitting on a roof outside a stadium doesn’t really meet the criteria, but the league office seems determined to punish someone and doesn’t have any interest in going after the group of adults who, you know, tried to storm an apartment building to attack 3 kids sitting calmly on a roof.

I’m normally critical of any antagonistic fan behavior because it’s either stupid posturing or mindless violence and neither’s a worthwhile way to spend time and energy. This is pretty funny, though. These kids found a harmless way to make a visual joke at one of their biggest rivals’ home turf. We should encourage that sort of non-violent creativity, not punish it.

I imagine that the real fury isn’t so much that these kids were provoking Pisa fans so much as watching a game for free, which is the greatest sin against the morons who brought you #StoPiracy because they’ve alreadyaddressedeveryotherproblem that used to lurk within calcio. Better bring down the hammer on some teenagers instead.