Italian league suspended for a week after riots

Italy's second and third division soccer programme will be suspended at the weekend, the country's federation said yesterday following fan violence sparked by the shooting of a Lazio supporter by a policeman.

Italy visit Scotland in a crunch Euro 2008 qualifier on Saturday, meaning there is no top-flight action but games in Serie B and Serie C have been postponed this Sunday as a mark of respect to the dead fan.

"The decision by the federation... is to suspend the professional championships of B and C scheduled for next Sunday," Italian soccer federation (FIGC) president Giancarlo Abete told reporters.

FIGC has now had to halt league action for the second time in a year because of hooliganism.

Italy are due to host Faroe Islands in Modena on November 21 with Serie A expected to resume a week on Sunday.

Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri earlier urged the soccer authorities to make a "strong gesture" and suspend the domestic championships for a few weeks but Abete was happy with the decision taken.

"We believe that we have given an important signal of willingness. We believe that in this situation football has been the victim and not the protagonist," he said.

Italy's anti-hooligan body has also banned large groups of potentially violent away supporters from all grounds.

It wants to decide on a game-by-game basis which visiting fans can go to stadiums and has urged authorities to quickly implement the idea of 'supporter passports'.

Police said the fatal shooting of Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri on Sunday was accidental. The unnamed officer is under investigation for manslaughter and has been re-assigned to internal duties.

The officer encountered a disturbance between fans of Rome club Lazio and Turin's Juventus at a motorway service station near the Tuscan city of Arezzo, hours away from the two teams' respective matches.

"I didn't point it at anything, I didn't aim at anybody," he told Corriere della Sera. "The first shot I fired into the air and the second left me while I was running. Now I have destroyed two families, the man's and mine."

The shooting prompted riots in Rome on Sunday, with fans attacking a police barracks, the Olympic Stadium and causing extensive damage to the Italian Olympic Committee headquarters next door.

At least 40 police were hurt in Rome alone, officials said.

A top-flight game between Atalanta and Milan in Bergamo was also abandoned after seven minutes when fans tried to break down a glass barrier keeping them from the pitch.

Officials have yet to decide what to do about the Inter vs Lazio and Roma vs Cagliari matches, which were postponed on Sunday because of the shooting and whether to play the Atalanta game or award the points to Milan.