Luigi Bonagura is having a busy week.
The deputy commissioner of Naples police had on Tuesday tried to calm down reporting about potential trouble in the city. For several days there had been articles in Napoli’s local media suggesting the police were on alert and waiting for hooligans arriving from Liverpool.
Fear of trouble was talked up, and the police clearly felt more was being made of it than necessary.
Bonagura stated: “Hooligans in Naples? There is no concern about the arrival of Liverpool fans, our English colleagues have signalled the presence of the 40 most exuberant fans, but it is a small number and easily controllable. I would be cautious about these alarms, it is a non-alarm for us.”
It’s impossible to know for certain, but Bonagura may have been specifically concerned about the media reports being used as basis for local Naples thugs to attack the visitors. If the more violent elements of Napoli’s support were hearing about a coming invasion of Liverpool fans wanting trouble, then they’d be more likely to provide it for them.
Tuesday evening saw Liverpool fans attacked, and rather than shift the blame or make it sound like a 50/50 situation, Bonagura has made it clear it was unprovoked, and he’s set about trying to identify those who did it.
CalcioNapoli24 quote him as saying: “Liverpool fans wounded? Fortunately it’s nothing serious, we are capturing footage from nearby cameras to put faces to the attackers. We are monitoring sensitive areas to dissuade any copycats from attacking the fans.
“I think it was the young looking for emotion, not organised groups, and without any justification. The only thing to do is to prevent such incidents happening again. We are still tested, we hope to be able to contain and avoid incidents like those of yesterday.”
It would of course have been better if no Liverpool fans had been attacked, but the local police seem to be taking matters seriously and certainly not just blaming the visitors.
