"Derby of the dead child": This match changed football forever
· Yahoo Sports
When does a game become legendary? Is it when everyone can remember where they were at the time of the match? When the game has its own Wikipedia article? When the game marks a turning point in football?
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Exactly 22 years ago today, there was a match that fulfilled all three of these criteria for Roman or even Italian football fans. The "Derby del bambino morto" (literally, "Derby of the Dead Child"), to be precise.
The signs leading up to the Rome derby were far from ideal. Both clubs were in severe financial trouble. Moreover, the situation between the police and the fans had been extremely tense for quite some time. Even before this derby on March 21, 2004, there were clashes between police and fans.
After the match kicked off as normal and the first half was played, things became increasingly restless in and around the Stadio Olimpico at halftime. Within minutes, a rumor spread that the police had run over a child outside the stadium and that the child had possibly died. Fans had reportedly seen a child lying under a white sheet, as various media later reported.
As the rumor spread like wildfire, leading figures among the Roma fans reacted and climbed onto the pitch in the 47th minute, as reported by 'Der Spiegel' two days after the derby. The supporters of the capital club went to Roma legend Francesco Totti and demanded, in no uncertain terms, that the players and officials immediately abandon the match. Totti later went to his then-coach Fabio Capello and uttered the legendary sentence: "If we keep playing now, they'll kill us."
📸 AFP - 2004 AFP
After lengthy deliberations and a phone call between referee Roberto Rosetti and the then vice president of the Italian league, Adriano Galliani, the match was officially abandoned 20 minutes later. But the real chaos was just beginning.
Both the Roma fans and their rival Lazio supporters packed up their things and, despite their enmity, launched a joint attack on the police. The clashes between fans and police, described by eyewitnesses as resembling civil war, continued late into the night. Despite repeated announcements in the stadium that no child had been harmed, the spiral of violence could no longer be stopped.
In the end, up to 174 police officers and 21 fans were injured. Due to the massive use of tear gas and the fear of being registered by the police in nearby hospitals, it is believed that the actual number of injured fans was much higher.
And what about the child under the white sheet? According to various media reports and accounts, the boy under the sheet had previously been injured by the tear gas used and was under the white cloth to be protected from the tear gas lingering in the air. As it later turned out, there was never a dead child.
Afterwards, some observers, including the police, suspected a full-blown conspiracy, but this could never be proven. Roma and Lazio fans were accused of having planned everything to demonstrate their power against the state apparatus. The conspiracy charges were dropped in court three years later, after a lengthy legal review.
📸 STR - 2004 AFP
Nevertheless, this match marked a turning point. Security measures in Italian stadiums were massively tightened afterwards, which further strained the relationship between fans and police. Video surveillance in stadiums, multiple checks, as well as personalized and non-transferable tickets were some of the measures taken that affected fan life in Italy.
Books have been written about the match in retrospect. It is one of those games that everyone present still remembers to this day—the Wikipedia entry is, of course, obligatory. Although much went wrong that day, it became a legend. A legend that also serves as a memorial.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.