A strange story has emerged over the past few days, as a football fan named Valentino Nerbini has felt the need to flee Italy after wearing a Liverpool shirt to the recent Fiorentina-Juventus game.
This stems from the resentment Turin fans still hold about the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, and following the Fiorentina fan being spotted with the top, he was handed a two-year Daspo, which is a measure provided for by Italian law to prevent violent incidents in locations where sporting events are held.
Not only that, but pictures of Nerbini, a lawyer himself, were shared on the Internet, which led to him being threatened, with many believing he was mocking Juventus fans about Heysel by wearing the Liverpool shirt.
Having left Italy for the time being, the Fiorentina fan is now being represented by his lawyer, Mattia Alfano, who is trying to clear the air over what happened.
Speaking in a press conference, he revealed his client ‘had to flee abroad because his story and his face circulated on the internet’, leading him to be the ‘protagonist of a real media storm on social networks’, during which fans ended up ‘threatening him with death from all over Italy’.
He said, relayed by Fiorentina.it: “On Fiorentina-Juventus day, Valentino didn’t have the Liverpool top on at random, and if we look at his Facebook profile, there are so many photos of him and his son that highlight his passion for Liverpool, which has led him to see Liverpool several times.”
The game between the two Italian sides was also the same day Jürgen Klopp’s side faced Everton in the Premier League at Goodison Park, and the lawyer added ‘Valentino and his son went to a pub to see the game’.
Once that finished, ‘it was too late to go home to change’, meaning Nerbini went straight to the stadium in the same clothes.
Alfano added: “There was no intention of wanting to remember the dead of Heysel, who deserve the utmost respect, both ours and his. It was accidental that he wore the Liverpool shirt, it was accidental that he responded to the teasing received as usually happens at the stadium with other teasing.
“He made a mistake, but there was no connection with Liverpool. He jut wanted to make fun of Juventus fans who have been trying to win the Champions League for years. This is the story about this guy.”
