http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24436213

AC Milan must play their next home match behind closed doors after fans were found guilty of "insulting" chanting towards Juventus fans.

Serie A bosses issued the punishment on Monday following the Rossoneri's 3-2 weekend loss at the Juventus Stadium.

Milan, who were also fined 50,000 euros (£42,000), immediately announced they will appeal against the decision.

If unsuccessful, the San Siro will be shut for Milan's next match against Udinese on 20 October.

Serie A has clamped down on racist and discriminatory chants this season, with three other clubs - Roma, Lazio and Inter Milan - receiving partial stadium bans after their fans abused black players.

I think it's good Serie A are taking decisive actions here.

I'd like to see the same happen in England, like, this piece of news from the weekend:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/06/tottenham-fans-yid-chants-west-ham

Tottenham Hotspur fans defied police warnings not to use the word "Yid" in chants during the derby match with West Ham United and one was arrested for using the word during the match.

It's a big income loss for these big clubs if they have to play at an empty stadium, but sometimes that's the only way that will work. I mean, the crowd chanting something the police has warned them not to, yet just one person is arrested, that's nothing. Having to play behind closed doors and losing a couple of million in gate receipts, now that would make the clubs take some decisive action and all true fans would also realize that they better stop with the unacceptable chants.

I just wonder which is more decisive. Forcing to play behind closed-door (empty stadium) or forcing the team to pay the entire gate-receipt!!!

Funny enough, it wasn't any racist chanting. "We are not Neapolitan" is what they said, and they deemed it as an 'insulting chant'. Compared to the what the FIGC did to the ludicrous racism that was being chanted against us in half the games last season, the ultimatum is far too harsh.

We are talking about stadiums being closed for 'insulting chants' while clubs last season were being fined for racist chants

Ridiculous

But fining the club is not going to do anything to stop the fans from chanting unacceptable stuff. Either you let fans chant whatever they want or if you really want to get rid of the chanting, you take action that might actually have an effect, like playing behind closed doors.

iftikhar wrote:I just wonder which is more decisive. Forcing to play behind closed-door (empty stadium) or forcing the team to pay the entire gate-receipt!!!

Empty stadia are no fun, but you can't make the players pay for the tickets, and the fans' behaviour isn't their fault anyway...

Racist chants= Fine

'Insulting' chants= Fine+behind closed doors.

FIGC

El Shaarawy wrote:Funny enough, it wasn't any racist chanting. "We are not Neapolitan" is what they said, and they deemed it as an 'insulting chant'. Compared to the what the FIGC did to the ludicrous racism that was being chanted against us in half the games last season, the ultimatum is far too harsh.

We are talking about stadiums being closed for 'insulting chants' while clubs last season were being fined  for racist chants

Ridiculous

Yeah i think similar punishments should be handed for racist chants too.And dont try to make it sound like there are racist chants only being directed towards Milan players,no need for this victim complex.It happens almost everywhere in Italy and harsher punishments like this can help deal with this mess.

Yeah it's *bleep* stupid by the FIGC but let's not pretend that these rules just happened to pop up in spite of Milan.

S wrote:

El Shaarawy wrote:Funny enough, it wasn't any racist chanting. "We are not Neapolitan" is what they said, and they deemed it as an 'insulting chant'. Compared to the what the FIGC did to the ludicrous racism that was being chanted against us in half the games last season, the ultimatum is far too harsh.

We are talking about stadiums being closed for 'insulting chants' while clubs last season were being fined  for racist chants

Ridiculous

Yeah i think similar punishments should be handed for racist chants too.And dont try to make it sound like there are racist chants only being directed towards Milan players,no need for this victim complex.It happens almost everywhere in Italy and harsher punishments like this can help deal with this mess.

Calm down, i only chose Milan because its the team i've watched most matches. I can't rightfully judge what happends in other matches because i haven't watched much. I only brought Milan up because it was prevalent in most of our matches last season. Anyways, i agree that punishments must be handed out to those Neanderthals

Juventus ultras have joined Milan and Inter with their invitation to break the rules, forcing the closure of all stadiums.

The protest movement is spreading after Milan were ordered to play their next home game against Udinese behind closed doors for chants insulting Neapolitans.

This is an extension of the rules introduced to combat racism in stadiums, but the ultras protest this is trying to stamp out traditional inter-city rivalry that has always existed.

Inter ultras showed solidarity with Milan and now the Juventus ‘Fighters – Curva Sud Scirea’ have joined in.

“This is just another pointless and unconstitutional mechanism to discriminate against the ultras, condemning freedom of speech,” read the Juve ultras statement.

“During the next game in Florence on October 20 we invite all the fans to sing along with us those ‘famous’ chants of territorial discrimination. We invite supporters everywhere to unite in our protest by showing banners and singing these chants in every stadium on Friday 18, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 October.”

The plan from the various different groups of ultras is for all of the clubs to receive a ban simultaneously, so that an entire weekend of games will be played behind closed doors.

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http://football-italia.net/40391/juve-ultras-join-protest

this is just as bad as the yid chants

Milan appeal accepted. No ban.