Dutch protests of sea battle reenactments in the Colosseum reached its ultimate response to the Counter Reformation and the Council of Trent as the vanguard elements of the Feyenoord footie team's entourage trashed a Bernini fountain in Rome.
"The Dutch embassy in Rome said in a statement that there was "no place for violence in football" and that it would cooperate with Italian authorities to punish the perpetrators."
The mayor of Rome said Friday that Italy's capital is not secure against the threat of terrorist attacks after hundreds of marauding Dutch soccer fans rampaged through the city's historic center and damaged a just-renovated 400-year-old Bernini masterpiece at the foot of the Spanish Steps.
The security of Europe's capitals has been under increased scrutiny following the terror attacks in Paris last month, and in light of increasing violence and instability in the Middle East, in particular Libya, which has unleashed a flood of migrants trying to reach Italy by boat.
"It is evident that yesterday we demonstrated it is not safe," Rome mayor Ignazio Marino said in response to a question about what the clashes revealed about Rome's level of preparedness against a possible terrorist attack. "It is unacceptable that they come to a city for a soccer game and then they destroy a monument that is 400 years old."
Ahead of Thursday's Europa League match between Feyenoord and Roma, Dutch fans pounded the famed Fountain of the Barcaccia with beer bottles and unopened cans. Their actions damaged the travertine fountain that was unveiled only in September after a 200,000 euro ($227,000) restoration project, terrorized tourists and littered one of Rome's most upscale neighborhoods.
The mayor, who has described the scene as "urban warfare," said he will raise the security issue with Italy's top law enforcement official, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, when they meet later Friday.
The English poet John Keats could hear the sound of the fountain's water flowing soothingly from his deathbed. He said it reminded him of lines from the 17th-century play Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding (1611) and was the source for his epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
Eric Gudde arrived back in Rotterdam from Rome on Friday afternoon with 'extremely mixed feelings'. There was a sense of pride, on the one hand, due to the good sporting performance of the squad he flew home with. On the other hand, Feyenoord's general director was disgusted by a group of hooligans who, unlike the genuine supporters, went to Rome 'apparently with completely different intentions than supporting the club'. And made a shameful exhibition of themselves in the centre of the historical city.
Gudde spoke in that regard of the 'totally reprehensible behaviour of a group of brainless people who Feyenoord distances itself from completely and who fill every normal thinking Dutch person with horror.'
http://www.feyenoord.com/...