Juve, Torino fans given 10-match away ban after derby trouble: media

Juve and Torino fans were on Wednesday slapped with a 10-match ban from travelling to away fixtures as punishment for trouble before last month’s local derby which led to the game kicking off more than an hour late.

Italian media widely report the country’s Interior Ministry has ordered that away ends for Juve and Torino supporters be closed and a ban on the sale of away tickets for those matches to residents of the north-western Piedmont and Lombardy regions.

The Turin derby was one of five matches on the final day of last season which were supposed to kick off at 8.45pm local time (1845 GMT) due to being decisive to which teams took the final two of Serie A’s four Champions League spots.

But the fixture was heavily delayed for “public safety” reasons after a Juve fan was admitted to hospital following pre-match clashes outside the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.

Juve fans, the away supporters that night, insisted the match be suspended, going as far as to call over club captain Manuel Locatelli to voice their demands.

In the end kick-off was at 9.51pm, angering the Juve fans who abandoned the away end for a match which ended 2-2 and with their team outside Serie A’s top four positions.

Juve finished the season sixth and will play in the Europa League next term.

The injured fan, 36-year-old Marco Leonardo Basoccu, was on Tuesday discharged from hospital in Turin following treatment for serious head injuries.

Basoccu, a member of the “Viking” Juve ultras group, claimed to reporters outside the city’s Molinette hospital that he had no recollection of how he sustained his injuries.

Juve fans have accused police of firing tear gas canisters directly at fans and suggested that was what hit Basoccu, and local prosecutors are investigating the incident.