| | GENOA, Italy -- Italy's first official
soccer match to be officiated by two referees ended in chaos on
Tuesday when it was halted because of crowd trouble and then
abandoned shortly after halftime.
The Italian Cup second-round, first-leg match between
Sampdoria and Bologna was stopped five minutes into the second
half when home fans pelted Bologna and former Sampdoria
goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca with oranges, waterbombs, plastic
bottles and two metal bathtaps.
Chief referee Roberto Rosetti led the teams off the pitch
under the gaze of top FIFA and UEFA officials who had come to
Sampdoria's Marassi stadium to see the experimental match -- the
first of its kind in Italy and one of the first in the world.
Shortly afterwards the abandonment of the match was
announced on loudspeakers, prompting a triumphant cheer from
Sampdoria fans behind Paglica's goal.
The match had been largely uneventful during the first half.
Sweden's Kennet Andersson had put Bologna ahead after nine
minutes and Rosetti and his co-referee Gianluca Paparesta had
booked four players, three from Sampdoria and one from Bologna.
But when the teams switched ends after the interval, the
atmosphere changed.
Sampdoria supporters started to throw objects at Pagliuca as
soon as he took his place between the posts.
The referees delayed the re-start for 15 minutes while the
Sampdoria players appealed for calm.
The match finally restarted but within minutes Pagliuca was
again pelted with objects and had to leave his goal and stand
near the edge of the penalty area for safety.
When the bath taps were hurled on to the pitch, Rosetti blew
the final whistle.
"The conditions to continue playing just didn't exist,"
said Pierluigi Pairetto, one of the two officials who choose the
referees for Italian Cup matches. "It's a shame and a missed
opportunity. Episodes like this are always a shame."
"But the two-referees experiment has nothing to do with
this. The experiment went acceptably well. They made some good
calls and their coordination was good...this was generally a
positive experiment."
The reception Pagliuca recieved was particularly harsh
considering he played for the Genoese side for eight seasons
from 1986, helping them to their only league title in 1991 and
the European Cup final the following year.
He moved to Inter Milan in 1994 and from there to Bologna at
the start of this season.
Bad feeling between the two clubs dates from last season
when they met six times. Bologna knocked Sampdoria out of the
Intertoto Cup and the Italian Cup.
They then drew 2-2 with them on the penultimate day of the
league season thanks to a controversial penalty scored on the
stroke of full time.
That result condemned Sampdoria to Serie B for the first
time in 17 years.
Genoa was the scene of one of the worst incidents of Italian
soccer fan violence in 1995 when a 24-year-old Italian was
stabbed to death outside the Marassi stadium during fights
between Genoa and AC Milan fans.
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