adminThe fan was stabbed at the Drunken Ship bar in the Campo de’ Fiori district and is understood to have suffered a serious injury to an artery.
The bar’s owner said some 40 men wearing helmets and with faces covered attacked the English supporters.
The Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera said at least seven Spurs fans, aged between 20 and 60, had been injured and taken to three hospitals. Rome police said five were British, one was from California and one from Bangladesh.
La Repubblica reported “urban warfare” broke out at the bar, with up to 100 “Ultras” attacking Spurs fans.
It said Lazio fans were armed with knives, baseball bats, and knuckle dusters.
Tottenham MP David Lammy tweeted: “Every time EPL (English Premier League) clubs in Rome there’s a stabbing, every time promises are made to crackdown on thugs but nothing ever changes. Thoughts go out to Spurs fans that were attacked in Rome last night.”
The owner of the bar, Mario Manzi, told the BBC: “At 1am there were around 30 English fans here, plus some American students, and some Italians.
“At some point, from around the corner, some 40 guys, all wearing helmets, faces covered with scarves, came here, destroyed that window, and came in.
“The English people hid behind here, and everything was destroyed. There were rocks, iron bars, everything.”
He said: “The English fans were very calm, they weren’t even drunk, then these men with heads covered came barging in throwing cobblestones. They had clubs and metal rods. It lasted about 20 minutes.”
Manzi added: “This was a planned thing. They had studied it. The English people had been here since the afternoon. They were circled, cornered, and weren’t allowed to go out.”
The BBC’s Rome correspondent, Alan Johnston, said the bar was wrecked and five people were arrested.
All of them were Italians who the police believe to be Lazio fans.
Spurs supporter Mark Dignam said: “We are going to take the Tottenham bus to the stadium. We would normally make our own way but we are going to go the official way because we are worried. It is not good, it is not good. English teams got thrown out of Europe a long time ago for this sort of thing and wherever we go now we seem to be the subject of violence, it’s not good.”
Tottenham fan Dave Illesly said he left the bar shortly before the attack but he feared further trouble later.
He said: “That is the trouble with football; you never know. When you come abroad to foreign countries trouble comes to you.
“I’m not really looking forward to it now – bit worried, to be honest. I just don’t know; I would rather go home.”
Another Spurs fan, Sean Sill, said: “I’m going to cover up my Spurs shirt.” Rome police said the most seriously injured man was a 25-year-old who was being treated at San Camillo Hospital.
The spokesman said: “A group of about 40 or 50 people in motorcycle helmets or with their faces covered were armed and attacked the group of English football fans drinking in Campo de’ Fiori square.” — BBC News
Online Reporter