Retaliation under police supervision. Stabbed fan describes what happened in Rome

It’s a rematch with everything. The famous AS Rome is coming to Slavia and there will definitely be hundreds, maybe thousands of fans in the stadium’s audience who experienced the first match of both teams two weeks ago in the Italian capital.

Rome fans were already gathering in the afternoon on the Old Town Square, where there are police cars on every corner. The Seznam Zpráv reporter counted 17 of them in the square alone. The policemen will accompany the Italian fans to Eden.

The word revenge must be taken literally here, and that is also why the police prepared a larger deployment than usual.

Two weeks ago, a Slavist supporter was stabbed in Rome. The editors of Seznam Zpráv obtained his statement about what actually happened at that time in Italy, where Slavia lost 2:0. The young man wished to remain anonymous.

“My friends and I got off at the last stop of the tram and walked towards the stadium. There we spotted a group of 15, maybe 20 Czechs, who were already accompanied by the Italian police,” he describes his least pleasant experience connected with football so far. “We thought it would be a good idea to join them, thanks to more security. And actually, on the contrary, it was a mistake. We walked a hundred meters with that group and then suddenly there was a commotion behind us. Then something stung me in the ass,” he describes the attack with a knife.

At first he thought it was a taser, an electric stun gun. That he was simply electrocuted.

Everything happened in a flash. A few seconds, nothing more. He noticed that a group of about five Italians were attacking.

“It was all over in ten seconds. When I looked at my hand in the light, it was covered in blood. We started urging the police to call an ambulance and protect us. That’s what happened at first, five heavy-duty men came, but they went back within two minutes and only two civilians remained with us,” criticizes the Italian police’s approach.

Slavia also officially complained about him later.

The Slavia fan described that he was not even wearing any of his football club’s clothing. He wore jeans and a jacket to the match. Only after the umpteenth emergency did the police call an ambulance, which arrived after 40 minutes.

“After the ambulance arrived, they found out that there were two stab wounds. I felt this one and it was deeper, six stitches did it. We arrived at the hospital, practically none of them knew English. One patient helped me with the translation. I don’t understand how they could do this when they saw a bunch of hooligans running and they didn’t care what was going on there and didn’t want to help,” concludes a fan with an experience from Italy.

We assess the measure as risky, and the Prague police have prepared adequate security measures, which will involve hundreds of police officers and colleagues from the anti-conflict team.

The attack on the fan was the most visible problem of the first match between Roma and Slavia. The people of Prague also criticized the treatment of their supporters in the audience and after the match.

This is also why nervousness is more noticeable before Thursday’s early evening than usual. Even the Czech police do not take the match lightly. Of course he knows about the attack on the fan in Italy.

“We have assessed the match as risky and the Prague police have prepared adequate security measures, which will involve hundreds of police officers and colleagues from the anti-conflict team, whose task will be to prevent potential conflicts,” Prague police spokesman Jan Daněk told Seznam Zprávám.

He also added that the police will supervise the order in the streets of Prague even before the match.

“Police officers will supervise public order in the streets of the metropolis already during the day and monitor the movement of football fans in the streets and squares.”

Thursday’s game kicks off at the Eden at 6:45pm and is sold out.

Slavia recommends on its website that fans use public transport to travel. Either by metro with exit at Želivského or Strašnická stations, or by train.

After the start of the match, public transport will be strengthened from around 9 p.m.