Inter fans were treated in a racist manner by stadium officials during the team’s Champions League match away to Porto, in the view of Italian media.
Today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, contend that many of the Nerazzurri supporters who were at the stadium to attend the match were denied entry purely on the basis of being Italian.
The Gazzetta note that a relatively small number of Inter fans had managed to buy tickets in the section of the Estadio do Dragao where Porto’s ultras sit, something which the newspaper deems to have been “foolish.”
Inter fans were denied entry to that section on the basis of legitimate security concerns that had been agreed upon by the clubs before the match, as the potential for conflicts with Porto’s most intense groups of supporters were high.
However, the Gazzetta argue, there was no reason at all to deny Inter supporters entry into the “neutral” sections of the stadium where they had legitimately purchased tickets.
No agreement was in place between the clubs regarding Inter fans being kept out of these sections, and there was little security risk posed by allowing supporters of the two clubs to mingle in these areas.
Rather, the Gazzetta suggest, the stadium officials took it into their own hands to simply deny entry to any fans who they found were Italian to any section of the do Dragao that was not specifically designated to be for away fans.
From the newspaper’s perspective, this was the reason why Inter fans found themselves bottlenecked and unable to get into the stadium, and the rationale for the decision was racist in nature.
