ROME-Following brutal clashes at last week end's Italian Cup final, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pledged Monday to implement harsh measures to end football violence.

 “I will wait until the elections are over, until the championship ends and then, between July and August, we will think how to give football back to families,” Mr Renzi told La Stampa. “On Saturday we saw the stadium as a place of impunity,” he said, adding that the steps to be taken will involve not only “education,” but also “coercion.”

 “They did it in England,” noted the prime minister, “why shouldn’t we?”

 Saturday's match between Naples and Fiorentina was about to start as planned when news of a shooting with several Napoli supporters injured reached the crowds gathered in the Olympic Stadium in Rome. The tension had been rising since late afternoon, when clashes first broke out in the Ponte Milvio area between supporters of two teams, soon joined by fans of Roma, one of the capital's clubs, and between the ultras and the police. Before long, violence spread in other areas of the city, including the stadium itself, where flares and firecrackers flew between the opposing ends of the field.

 As news of the pre-match violence spread among Napoli fans, the match was delayed, without any official reason given. And instead of a game of football, all those waiting in the stadium witnessed a tense stand-off between the authorities and Napoli ultras, led by Gennaro De Tommaso, better known as Genny 'a carogna, with captain Marek Hamsik trying to calm down the situation by reprimanding the angered supporters.

 “There was no negotiation with the Napoli ultras,” explained Rome's police commissioner Massimo Mazza, clarifying that the Napoli team captain was given permission to inform the supporters of the victims’ condition.  

 Contrary to what was initially believed, the violent clash which left three Naples supporters severely injured had little to do with the game, or club antagonisms. The aggressor responsible for the gunfire was a Roma fan, who, having provoked the Naples supporters, found himself outnumbered. All three men suffered gunshot wounds and received hospital treatment. One of them, transported to the Policlinico hospital in a critical condition, has undergone a surgery to remove a bullet lodged near his spinal cord, and is on his way to recovery, doctors confirmed.  

 “The state does not negotiate with the fans,” said Italian Minister of Interior Angelino Alfano addressing the claims that it was Napoli ultras leader who eventually gave the green light to the start of the match, 45 minutes behind the schedule. “The match started because public safety had been restored both in and outside the stadium,” Mr Alfano clarified. “Napoli captain Hamsik did not go to ask the fans permission to start the game, but to tell them that the Naples fan was not injured in the context of the tensions between the two sets of supporters.”