Ultra culture is as deeply embedded in Italian football as it is in any of Europe's other major leagues, and one story painted a sad picture of the battles that still rage on today.
It was shortly before a clash between Inter and Napoli in December 2018 that the hooligan outfits affiliated with the Serie A giants held a war of their own on Milan's streets. Except this brawl had a lethal ending after one fan with high status in Milan's hooligan scene was killed amid the melee.
Daniele 'Dede' Belardinelli wasn't even an Inter fan, but instead played a leading role in guiding the ultras of Varese, a now-defunct outfit based 34 miles northwest of Milan. However, their most vicious supporters were closely linked with Inter's 'Boys San' – a sub-group of the club's infamous 'Curva Nord' ultras – and a part of Blood and Honour, a wider network with links to neo-Nazism and far-right ideals.
After drinking and soaking in the pre-match atmosphere at an English pub-inspired bar called Cartoons, Dede formed part of the gang that intercepted three minibuses and two cars carrying travelling Napoli ultras to the game that day. But the 39-year-old father-of-two didn't live to see the fight's outcome, after one of the buses veered off-track and hit something it wasn't supposed to.
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It was the Neapolitan visitors who screamed for a halt to the fight, shouting "he's yours, he's yours" after realising what had occurred.
"Considering that there were about a hundred Interisti armed with sharp and heavy tools used for forestry and building, the list of injuries was exceptionally short," read a passage from the preface of 'Ultra', a book written by Tobias Jones detailing the inner-workings of Italy's hooligan scene. "The one fatality was accidental, not intentional.
"Many eye-witnesses even said that the Inter ultras applauded the Neapolitans for handing over the dying man, as if the whole aggression was contained within a ritualistic role-playing framework that could be paused when real life, and death, intervened."
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The excerpt described Dede's "ribcage looking wrong" and his legs being "twisted unnaturally". He was declared dead at Milan's San Carlo hospital later that evening, a sorry end to a needless affair between two rival organisations seeking each other's respect.
The assault on Napoli's ultras was set up with militant efficiency, including fans placed in pubs to distract undercover cops in local pubs and allies based at tactical points to get the jump on their rivals. Jones went on to write that there was "actually minimal contact between the groups", but the sights and sounds of flares, dogs barking and metal bars being thrown put it in a more violent light.
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Married Belardinelli had previously been given two separate five-year stadium bans, the first of which was for his role in slapping the then-Varese manager in the face following protests against the police outside the club's stadium. Following the expiration of that ban, he was later served another five-year ban for organising clashes between the ultras of Inter and Como during a 2012 friendly.
"He loved football, but we did not talk about it because I support Juventus and he supported Inter," one of Daniele Belardinelli's uncles was quoted saying after news of his death emerged. "I do not know what to say, he was a cheerful man."
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