Whistles against Lukaku in Inter-Roma: the stop by the Milan police station, the background

There won’t be the deafening sound carpet of 30 thousand whistles to light up a match that was already hysterical: everyone was expecting that noise, especially Romelu Lukaku, the former king who became a “traitor” and center of gravity of this Inter-Roma match look at it from every side. Well, there won’t be that general uproar, the Milan police commissioner, Giuseppe Petronzi, decided yesterday afternoon at the end of a hectic day between meetings, cross opinions and official emails bounced between Rome and Milan. The decision to distribute so many whistles, which would have been activated at every touch of the ball by the Belgian, comes from afar – the Inter ultras had announced it about a month ago – and as the days went by the tom-tom was mounted among everything else of the Nerazzurri fans: many who perhaps would not have had access to the curve’s equipment would probably have “armed” themselves independently, causing the figure to grow to well over 30 thousand. And instead, no access for anyone: the controls will be stricter than usual at the entrance to prevent this object, apparently harmless but which has become a symbol, from being introduced.

the about-face

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It represents the climate of growing tension for Lukaku’s return after the summer turnover on the transfer market. A general atmosphere that led to a choice defined as prudent: it is better to avoid any additional fuse that would ignite tempers even more, the police say. And this despite the initial orientation of the institutions seemed inclined to “open” access to the whistles. In fact, yesterday morning the Gos, Operational Security Group, met with, among others, a police officer appointed by the commissioner, the security officers of the two clubs and the respective Slo (Supporter Liaison Officer), i.e. the managers who have the task of maintaining contact with the organized fans. In that context, a photo of the whistles of discord was requested to verify that they were not made of iron and therefore potentially dangerous: they were made of plastic, black in colour, complete with a cord to tie around the neck. At that point, informally, the initiative was given an OK and the 30,000 objects were unloaded, just behind the Nerazzurri’s Curva Nord to organize distribution before the match. At that point, Roma officially claims to have taken no official steps to change the decision. Institutional sources, however, claim that in the afternoon a Giallorossi PEC would have arrived at the prefectures and police stations of Rome and Milan with a copy of the FIGC officials and the federal prosecutor’s office. Reference would have been made, among other things, to a passage in article 62 of the federal internal regulations on the protection of public order, according to which “all appropriate measures must be taken to prevent the progress of the competition from being disturbed by the sound of instruments that cause nuisance”.

the previous

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In general, such a high number of whistles, in the long run, could have created a dangerous climate for the management of public order: having accepted this report, the commissioner would have taken the decision, which was then communicated to both clubs and consequently also to the ultras . In short, Nord will have to put the multitude of plastic whistles already purchased inside the boxes, but via social media they complained about the communication times and because a similar initiative, organized in 2022 by Fiorentina fans against Vlahovic, had been authorised. Now those who know how to whistle with or without their hands will do so anyway, but in general, given the number of chants expected against the Belgian, it will be a much noisier match than the others.