This is the season that Juventus got relegated down to Serie B due to the match fixing scandal regarding the influence of Referee choices, originally Juventus had a 30pt deduction imposed which was reduced to 9 points. We were on holiday in the nearby resort of Cattolica and having chatted to the hotel staff about football and half heartedly mentioning that Juventus would be opening up the season just down the coast in rimini the son of the hotel owner said quite a few from the resort would be attending and i was welcome to join them, i was kind of 50/50 about it and asked about tickets, the tickets were no problem i was told, there will be no problem in getting in, my Mrs and our young son who was 5 at the time decided to stop around the pool as he had made a couple of friends and wanted to play in the pool with them. come Saturday morning i met Nino the hotel owners son and we went to a nearby cafe to meet up with another group, these were mainly workers from the nearby hotels and restaurants and our group probably numbered 15 or so in total, i asked about tickets and i never got a straight answer, it was all sorted or it was pay on the gate so i didn't really worry about getting in. We got the bus to nearby Rimini and straight to a crowded bar with mostly Juventus fans in it, the usual Italian football crowd with wine and various foods being passed around, with being an early KO i started to worry about actually getting to the game even though the stadium was probably 5 minutes away, eventually ever body got up and started making there way to the ground, 5 mins to KO and I'm sort of wondering what's happening, Nino took me to one side and told me no one was going to be paying, apparently a couple of the stewards would be opening a gate and ourselves along with another 100 or who had joined the group would be entering thru it at kick off, I'm thinking Fucking hell, if i get collared by the local plod it ain't going to look to well with the Mrs! explain to a 5 year old how you got nicked and locked up whilst on holiday eh?
just before kick off there was queues still outside the ground and we all approached a gate between the main stand and the terrace behind a goal, big chants went up in Italian and I'm stood amongst it all having lost Nino in the crowd, suddenly everyone made a dash for a pair of gates that starting swinging open and a massive rush for them, nothing i could do so i did the same and ran for them shoving a couple out of the way, it was chaos with bodies flying all over the place people fanning out left and right once through the gates, luckily i made it in and dashed onto the terrace behind a goal which had mostly home fans in but a section of Juventus fans as well, i went to the furthest part of the terrace and sat down amongst a family who all looked at me as if i was crazy, my phone is ringing and its Nino telling me to get into the stand at the side if i can, if not meet back at the bar after the game.
it was a mental match with Rimini really going for it and the atmosphere was great with singing all through the game, at half time everybody around me fetched food out, sandwiches, meat, wine, bread, i couldn't believe it, i got offered food and wine which i gladly accepted and sort of struck up a conversation with a couple of Rimini fans although there English wasn't good but my Italian was even worse!
quite a few who had got through the gates had been spotted and thrown out, luckily for me i wasn't one of them, i sort of settled down a bit in the 2nd half and started enjoying the game as i was scared i would be chucked out, afterwards i made my way back to bar we had been in and there was a bit of scuffle outside with the local plod diving in and stopping it pretty quick. Back at the hotel my Mrs. asked what the game had been like and she had watched some of it in the hotel bar on TV "did you see all those storming the gates?" I'm like "err no i didn't what happened?" i replied innocently!!
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