Inter’s 3-0 win over Sampdoria in Serie A yesterday evening was marred by scandalous scenes in the stands at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, after supporters, including children, were forced out of the north stand by “hardcore fans” known as ultras.

This according to Sportface.it, who report that early in the second half, leaders of Inter supporter group Curva Nord, ordered everyone standing in the north stand of the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza to vacate the stand immediately.

This, in order to pay tribute to an ultra boss, Vittorio Boiocchi, who had been shot to death in Milan in what police described as an ambush, earlier that night.

The 69-year old, described in Italian media as a “historic head of the ultra’s” had according to various reports in Italian media, spent more than 26 years in prison in total for drug trafficking, theft and kidnapping.

To honour him, the current ultras bosses vacated the stadium en-masse but forced all other spectators, including those who had bought tickets in the corners of the stand, to depart their seats midway through the match too.

This included women and children, and fans were forcibly removed from their seats in order to leave the Curva empty during the tribute.

According to testimonies on Twitter from those caught up in the ugly scenes, and as collated by Sportface.it, fans were pushed, kicked and insulted in order to empty the stand, with growing anger against the ultras from fans online.

This is not the first time the Curva Nord have been involved in a scandal. Back in 2019 they published an open letter to Belgian international striker Romelu Lukaku claiming monkey chants hurled at him by Cagliari ultras in a Serie A game a few days earlier, were not racism but banter.

Inter are yet to release an official comment regarding the incident in the stands during the win against Sampdoria at the time of publication of this article.