Curva nostra? Mob infiltration of football 'ultras' spreads across Italy

Milan: Italian crime bosses and the far-right are tapping into the muscle and money-spinning activities of hardline 'ultra' soccer fans in several Italian cities, with mobsters even seeking to take control of some smaller clubs, according to Italy's leading anti-mafia prosecutor.

An investigation by Milan prosecutors and the office of the national anti-mafia prosecutor found that ultra groups at Inter and AC Milan, two of the biggest names in Italian soccer, have allegedly become enmeshed with crime gangs.

Leaders of the ultras, with links to members of Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta mafia, run ticket scams and protection rackets on drink stands and car parks around the city's San Siro stadium, which both clubs share, prosecutors say. Police in September arrested 19 high-profile members of the clubs' ultras as part of an investigation given extra urgency by the killing of Antonio Bellocco, a leading figure in the 'Ndrangheta and a prominent Inter Milan ultra, outside a boxing gym that month. In a 568-page arrest document, prosecutors traced a direct link between leaders of Inter's 'Curva Nord' - the main ultra group at the Italian champions - and the 'Ndrangheta, the country's largest organised crime group.

"Inter as a club is in a subservient position in its dealings with members of the Curva Nord," prosecutors wrote in the document, reviewed by Reuters.

Subsequent investigations have also linked a leading AC Milan ultra to alleged drug trafficking and the 'Ndrangheta.

Criminal infiltration extends well beyond Milan to a number of other Italian cities, with mobsters seeking to gain sway over fans and clubs at all levels of the professional game, according to the documents and interviews with two prosecutors.

Inter and city rivals AC Milan, both owned by US investors, said they are cooperating with the authorities. "I want to reassure all our fans that we are the injured party, as the authorities have said," Inter President Giuseppe Marotta told broadcaster Sky in October. The club declined further comment when approached by Reuters.

AC Milan said it had provided the authorities with all the documentation they requested. "We're continuing to follow the guidance of the experts from the prosecutor's office to identify and work on the areas where we need to intervene," the club said in a statement.

'Military control'

Most Italian soccer clubs are backed by groups of ultras - supporters who bring banners, coordinate chanting via megaphone and put on mosaic-style displays at matches. Their rituals have been copied by hardcore fan groups across Europe.

Tracing their roots back to the 1960s, these groups have long had a violent element, clashing with rival gangs and splintering into an array of feuding factions.

"The stadium is a place where for a long time it was considered necessary to tolerate and at most contain examples of blatant illegality, governed by organised groups that exercise an almost military control over the stands," said Giovanni Melillo, Italy's Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Chief Prosecutor.

He told Reuters such groups used "intimidation and violent retribution" to control business activities linked to soccer grounds.

Prosecutors have stepped up their investigations into these groups following the murders of two Inter ultras leaders with ties to the criminal underworld in the past two years.

Melillo coordinates four deputy prosecutors dedicated to uncovering the crossover between soccer, organised crime and political extremism across Italy.

"Investigations...show the interest of mafia groups in acquiring control of a football club, seen as an extraordinary vehicle for business expansion and social consensus," he added.

That was particularly evident in the lower divisions, where clubs still have significant levels of business activity, he said. He declined to identify any clubs because investigations are ongoing.

Murders in Milan

Bellocco was stabbed to death in an apparent settling of scores in September by Andrea Beretta, a 49-year-old fellow Inter ultra leader, who claimed he acted in self-defence.

Behind bars and fearing for his life, Beretta has been transferred to a prison away from Milan and is cooperating with investigations, according to two judicial sources.

Reuters was unable to reach him for comment.

Two years earlier, Vittorio Boiocchi, a 69-year-old leader of the Inter ultras with a long criminal record, was gunned down outside his home in a murder that remains unsolved.

Inter fans approached by Reuters at the San Siro before a Champions League match with German club RB Leipzig in late November were reluctant to discuss the ultras.

One Milanese man, aged 57, who declined to give his name, said an odd atmosphere was apparent in parts of the stadium.

"If you go on the Curva Nord you see that there is a bit of everything: smoking drugs, alcohol, but above all the drumsticks. There are a lot more of them than they than need for beating the drums, and the sticks are also longer," he said.

"This is not support: it's thuggery."

Antonio Ricciato, head of the Federation of Italian Soccer Supporters (FISSC), rejects the idea that there are "no-go areas" for ordinary fans in stadiums. He said some fan groups help to make Italian soccer more marketable.

"There are parts of the ground where football is a different experience than in other areas and this is a fundamental part of the spectacle," he said.

Players, coaches under pressure

National prosecutor Melillo said players and coaches were exposed to intimidation from hardline fans who can make or break their careers.

"The relationship with these groups is considered in some cases crucial for the future of clubs, coaches and players."

In the past, investigations into such relationships had helped to uncover betting scandals but the nature of modern gambling made that much more difficult, he said.

"In a system where people even bet on the number of corners or offsides in a match, it is much more difficult to understand what is going on," he said.

Umberto Calcagno, a former player who is president of the Italian footballers' association, said his organisation has been monitoring the problem of intimidation for the past decade in reports entitled "Footballers under Fire".

"There has been an exponential increase in the last 10 seasons of incidents, intimidation, violence and threats suffered by footballers, and this really affects all leagues," he said.

In one incident, shots were fired into a car owned by Davide Di Pasquale, the captain of Foggia, after his third-tier team lost out in a promotion playoff in June 2023. His Jeep, which was unoccupied, had been parked at the club's stadium.

The Milan investigation shows the level of access ultras had as they tried to secure additional tickets for big matches, which can be sold on for multiples of their face value. Inter ultra Marco Ferdico called Inter coach Simone Inzaghi on his mobile phone to ask him to lobby club executives to allocate more tickets to the group for Champions League final against Manchester City in Istanbul in June 2023 - the showpiece game of European soccer.

Inzaghi, who is not under investigation, spoke to prosecutors as a witness in October and told them he did not feel threatened by the call, one of the judicial sources said.

Beyond the terraces

Prosecutors are also investigating the crossover between the ultras and neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups.

Previous probes of neo-nazis in Lombardy - which includes Milan - as well as the Veneto and Lazio regions have shown that many of them were members of ultra groups. The concern about such alleged ties was underlined when the city of Amsterdam banned supporters of Rome-based Lazio from attending a Europa League game with Ajax on Dec. 12

"Supporters of Lazio are not welcome in Amsterdam," the municipality said in a statement. "The risk of extreme-right, antisemitic, racist expressions and disturbances is too high."

Lazio called the comments "discriminatory and offensive" and said the club leadership had always sought to combat racism. Melillo cited an attack on the headquarters of Italian trades union CGIL during protests over COVID restrictions in Rome in 2021 as a moment when fans of Lazio and bitter rivals AS Roma put aside their differences to target a political foe.

CGIL was selected because of its left-wing sympathies in a demonstration led by the local leader of neofascist group Forza Nuova, backed by Roma and Lazio ultras.

Melillo underlines that ultras are ripe for exploitation by political extremists and organised crime. "It's a European phenomenon, not just Italian, in which real paramilitary militias are growing, ready to be hired for other illicit purposes too, which have nothing to do with football," he said.