Milan madness scars Italian game

Crowd chaos ends Milan game Ancelotti shocked by violence More photos from Milan

The shocking scenes at Milan's San Siro stadium on Tuesday may have surprised many British football fans.

But the relaxed response to the violence of the Inter crowd, many of whom cheered when Milan goalkeeper Dida was hit by a flare, was indicative of an on-going problem in Italian football.

Coming after a weekend in which 85 policemen were injured and scores of fans were arrested after outbreaks of violence at five different Italian matches only highlighted the problem.

"This sort of thing happens quite often in Italy," Italian football expert James Richardson told BBC Five Live.

"It is not really that extraordinary to see stuff thrown onto the pitch in Italian games.

"A few years ago Inter fans actually tried to launch a burning moped from the same area of the San Siro as last night's trouble.

It will force the Italian authorities to take a serious look at this James Richardson

"This isn't an isolated incident. The hard-core support are very adept at getting flares and offensive banners into stadiums.

"Once they are in, the 'curvas' - the ends of the stadium where the hard-core support go - are pretty much no-go areas.

"There is no real police presence; they don't really want to go into these areas. They fear that going in will be seen as invading their territory and provoke further trouble.

"It has been a problem for so long now that people in the 'curvas' do largely what they want and get away with it."

Television monitoring of trouble spots inside grounds over the past two years has helped curb the problem to a degree, according to Richardson, with some arrests made.

"But they have never come up with an effective solution," he added.

"Now that this has happened under a Uefa banner, rather than in a domestic match, and Uefa will really come down hard on them, it will possibly force the Italian authorities to take a serious look at this."

Uefa set to act on Milan violence

Inter are likely to face heavy sanctions from Uefa for this latest incident of misbehaviour from their fans.

In February 2001 they were ordered to play two European games away from the San Siro after violent protests following a Uefa Cup defeat by Spanish club Alaves.

But in May that season an Inter fan went on to the pitch and accosted Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta during a record 6-0 defeat by their city rivals.

There were also clashes after the game, with disgruntled fans hurling glass bottles at police, who used tear-gas to quell the disturbance.

There are specific towns in Italy where they have problems of violence James Richardson

The fans later regrouped and launched another attack on police, who were separating Inter supporters from Milan fans.

Italian football was in the dock again last September when Swedish referee Anders Frisk was hit in the face and bloodied by an object thrown from the stands in Rome during a Champions League match between AS Roma and Dynamo Kiev.

On that occasion Uefa ordered Roma to play their two remaining home matches behind closed doors.

It is not just the major clubs affected by violence however, amid fears that Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final second leg between Juventus and Liverpool will be targeted.

Serie B side Ternana were fined £20,000 after missiles were thrown from the stands at Perugia fans last weekend.

Lazio were also fined £17,000 after fascist chants by supporters during their game with Livorno, with 200 Livorno fans clashing with police at Rome's St Peters station.

Security stepped up for Liverpool

"There are specific towns in Italy where they have problems of violence, but Turin is not one of them," Richardson explained.

"There is a hard-core support but the fans are not as passionate and fired-up about football as in Bergamo, or Brescia, or Verona, or Lazio fans in Rome.

"In Turin there isn't that history of fans going out and looking for trouble. It is not a dangerous place.

"But one thing that is almost certain to happen is that Juventus fans are likely to launch objects at the visiting supporters.

"If there is trouble at the Stadio Delle Alpi it usually boils down to flares being thrown towards the area where the visiting supporters have been quarantined by the police."