English fans in Rome mocking the controls: 50 stopped at the hotel

Eventually the British arrived, they entered a Roma violating the rules and mocking the controls. And even the journalists of The Sun have documented how easy it was to circumvent the timid checks of the Italians, starting from London, passing through Nice, ending the journey under the Colosseum, without anyone having stopped them.

Of course, the invasion of the British for the European Championship match against Ukraine it was limited: it was not the 3,000 initially feared but 1,600 counted by the Police Headquarters with ticket monitoring. And yes: a part of the Sterling national team fans are resident in Italy, in European Union countries or, perhaps, live in Dubai, therefore they have not broken the anti Covid limitations that they impose on those who have been in the last two weeks United Kingdom, five days of quarantine and a swab at the end of isolation. But another substantial slice of English fans managed to arrive in Rome directly from England, where the Delta variant is spreading. How many? It is difficult to make an estimate, but it will be useful to know that about fifty were intercepted in 27 hotels in Rome. Have they been stopped? Sanctioned? No. An Englishman can enter Italy, the violation occurs only if he does not respect the five days of solitary confinement. In theory, if it is not shown that he has left the hotel, there is no scope for intervention with a sanction. For these 50 fans found – all with tickets to access the stadium – the tickets were “canceled”, blocked and their names ended up in the so-called “blacklist” in the hands of the police employed in the services at the Olimpico and in the ” fan zone “.

Checks in restricted areas

At the stadium and in the areas reserved for fans in piazza del Popolo and via dei Fori Imperiali, checks were carried out, documents, hygienic test certificates, ticket purchase dates were sifted through. Those who were not in order, those who could not prove that they were in Italy or within the European Union, did not enter the game. But from an epidemiological point of view, pushing English fans from London or Manchester back to the turnstiles was of no use. They walked around the city, frequented bars, supermarkets and restaurants, got into taxis, trains, subway trains. The Minister of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, said before the kick-off: «The England match? In recent days we have put in place, with the Fgci and with the undersecretary for sport, all the preventive activity. I hope that everything we have done is enough »If fifty have been spotted in hotels, it is likely that at least 200-300 (very conservative estimate) have gotten away with it, because they may have stayed in some illegal B&B. Before the game, for example, there were British fans, visibly drunk, queuing at a pharmacy to undergo the antigen test and show the certificate at the entrance to the stadium.

Their thesis: “We were isolated for five days and then we performed the swab, as required by Italian law.” Very hard to believe, given that six days ago it was still unknown whether England would win the right to play the quarter-final of the European Championships. How did they get around the controls? The Sun reporters showed it: I fly from London to Nice because the European Union has different rules and France does not impose restrictions on the British; then they rented French cars, crossed the border, stopped off in Florence, and finally a choreographic mission aboard three Mini (one white, one red and one blue) under the Colosseum, where they took photos and videos complete with mascots ( the Lion) of the national team. Has anyone stopped them? No.

THE ITALIAN JOB

In the article they explained that for what they called the Italian Job (citation of the title of an old film), in a very theoretical line, no one has violated the law because the law allows an Englishman to travel to Italy for 36 hours to business reasons. But the London-Nice-Rome route, documented by The Sun, is the same one followed by many Brits to reach the Olimpico. The Police Headquarters had carried out checks on the passenger lists of flights from the United Kingdom and Ukraine (for this country the bans are even more stringent), five checkpoints have been organized in the city and the fan zone in Piazza del Popolo is been manned. The whole center of Rome, from Campo de ‘Fiori to the Trevi Fountain, was armored. “And whoever is not up to date at the stadium has not entered.” True, but the problem was not the Olimpico or the 400 euro fine for the English fan who violated the Ministry of Health ordinance (and who knows if it will ever be paid by a UK citizen). The problem is what happened before.