{"id":290571,"date":"2023-09-13T18:35:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T18:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=290571"},"modified":"2023-09-13T18:35:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T18:35:39","slug":"hooligan-firm-applauded-as-body-of-dead-rival-ultra-was-retrieved-mid-ambush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/hooligan-firm-applauded-as-body-of-dead-rival-ultra-was-retrieved-mid-ambush\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooligan firm applauded as body of dead rival ultra was retrieved mid-ambush"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/b>'I am the Charles Bronson of football \u2013 I want to get sent off in a Wembley cup final'<\/b><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

"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.<\/p>\n

"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."<\/p>\n

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