© EuroFootball.com
One passionate fan of London's Tottenham Hotspur football club was seriously injured, while nine others were slightly injured during a clash with local fans in Rome on Thursday.
The London club played against the local team Lazio in Rome on Thursday evening, with Lithuanian Marius Stankevičius representing the Lazio team in the Europa League match.
The Italian sports newspaper "Gazzetta dello Sport" reports that the English fans were attacked during a brawl at a bar in Rome. One fan was stabbed and is now in critical condition. He and eight other slightly injured fans are British, while one is American.
BBC reports that the Rome police are searching for about 30 attackers who were armed with metal sticks and had their faces covered. According to the police, these were the passionate fans of the Lazio club and they all gathered in a bar after midnight, where the English fans were having fun.
Another Italian newspaper, "La Repubblica," reports that in these "street brawls," at least 100 Italian ultras attacked the English fans, armed with baseball bats, knives, and knuckle dusters.
Despite the number of attackers, all sources report about one seriously injured British man, whose artery was pierced by a knife and will likely require surgery.
Some Lazio fans have been previously suspected of fascism, as the club was supported by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini before World War II. In contrast, the Tottenham club has long been traditionally supported by the Jewish community.
