Palermo: Hundreds of livid Palermo fans protested outside the stadium after watching their team lose a key relegation match 2-1 at home to Siena yesterday. TV pictures showed the supporters hurling insults and throwing ob-jects at the team bus as it pulled out of the stadium. Some of the chanting was aimed at the club’s president Maurizio Zamparini.
No goal: Hearts claimed a goalless draw against Edinburgh rivals Hibernian in controversial circumstances when the home side had a perfectly good effort disallowed at Easter Road, yesterday. A superb Leigh Griffiths free-kick in the 78th minute hit the bar and landed well over the line but was not awarded by the match officials. Ironically, the International Football Association Board met in Edinburgh only the week before to discuss how the various licensed systems might be implemented.
Cellino: Massimo Cellino, the Cagliari supremo, has moved his house arrest to Asseminello, the Serie A club’s training complex. Cellino was arrested on charges of fraud around the construction of Cagliari’s new stadium, the Is Arenas arena. Cellino was released on house arrest last week.
New Pope: The Roma-Parma Serie A match scheduled for next Sunday could be moved due to public safety fears if a new Pope is elected. Police are warning that they do not have enough man-power to provide security at the Vatican City and the Olympic Sta-dium on the same day.
Violence: Racing Club’s match at San Martin was abandoned when the home side’s fans rioted in another incident of the violence afflicting Argentine soccer this year. Racing were coasting to a 3-0 victory when the referee aban-doned Saturday’s match in the 87th minute with hooligans hurling objects onto the pitch and attempting to break down peri-meter fencing. Police failed in their efforts to try to stop the violence with fire hoses.
Baptista: Malaga have been boosted ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League last 16 second leg at home to Porto by the return to training of Brazilian forward Julio Baptista after a brief injury lay-off with a hamstring strain. Qatar-owned Malaga need to overturn a 1-0 deficit from last month’s first leg in Portugal if they to progress to the last eight on their debut in Europe’s elite club competition.