At the weekend, Juventus Turin supporters behaved inappropriately during a minute’s silence for the late Italian football legend Sandro Mazzola. The Old Lady is now being fined for this disrespectful behaviour.
Over the weekend, the death of Sandro Mazzola shook the Italian footballing world; minutes’ silence were held nationwide in honour of the two-time domestic league champion and 1968 European champion. In Turin, however, things took a disrespectful turn during Juve’s home match against Atalanta on Sunday (2–0).
Parts of the Juve support pointedly turned their backs on the pitch during the tribute to Mazzola, preferring instead to sing about some of their own departed club legends, such as Gaetano Scirea and Andrea Fortunato.
In Turin, it was clear that the misconduct of their own supporters would not go unpunished – and that has now proved to be the case. Serie A confirmed that Juventus have therefore been fined 10,000 euros.
The Old Lady therefore got off lightly; prior to this, there had been reports suggesting a fine of up to 50,000 euros as well as the closure of the South Stand for the next home match against Lazio on 18 October. Neither of these measures has now been imposed.
An Italian legend
Immediately following the incidents, Juventus distanced itself from the behaviour of its own supporters and emphasised that “a lack of respect during a minute’s silence cannot be justified by any rivalry”. Mazzola, who lived to the age of 83, is not only one of the legends of Italian football, he is also a club icon at Inter Milan.
At the age of 16, he joined the Nerazzurri’s youth academy, made his first-team debut at 18 – and remained loyal to the club until the end of his career in 1977. The versatile attacking player, who started out as a striker before becoming a playmaker, won the Scudetto four times and the European Cup twice with Inter. He made 565 competitive appearances for Inter, scoring 158 goals.
Mazzola earned 70 caps for Italy between 1963 and 1974; in 1968 he was crowned European champion on home soil and in 1970 he was runner-up at the World Cup.
