Italy's interior minister calls for crackdown on nazi fans

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu answers journalists' questions during a press conference focused on the new security measures for the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin. Pisanu said that football games should be suspended if any nazi or facist symbols are displayed by supporters.

Italy's Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said that football games should be suspended if any nazi or facist symbols are displayed by supporters.

This comes two days after Roma fans brandished flags with swastikas, celtic crosses and pictures of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at their Serie A match at home to Livorno.

Under legislation brought in by Pisanu last summer, the football authorities have the power to suspend games if offensive banners or flags are on display.

No match has so far been suspended for such an offence, despite similar events involving Lazio fans earlier in the season.

Roma said they were doing all they could to prevent offensive symbols being brought into the Olympic stadium and that it was down to the police to confiscate them because it is they who carry out the checks at the turnstiles.

Despite Pisanu's apparently tough stance, he admitted that the suspension of a match or any intervention by the police could create "extreme tension and possibly endanger peaceful supporters".