Minister steps in to rescue football tour
Italian football team Inter Milan have reversed a decision to cancel their pre-season tour of England, Sports Minister Richard Caborn has said.
Mr Caborn said he held talks with Italian sports minister Mario Pescante on Saturday after the renowned team decided to abandon the four-match tour due to security fears following the recent London bomb attacks.
The president of the Italian football association had persuaded Inter to go ahead with the tour after Mr Pescante asked the body to intervene and convince the team to travel to England, Mr Caborn said.
“They came back on Saturday night saying all things being equal the tour would be on,” he added, commenting on the outcome of the talks.
“It is very important that life goes on and sport is at the forefront of that,” Mr Caborn said.
“In London we had Grand Prix athletics and cricket this weekend. It is business as usual. We make no concessions.”
The statement from Inter on Saturday announcing that they planned to cancel matches at Portsmouth, Leicester, Norwich and Crystal Palace next week had prompted condemnation from London mayor Ken Livingstone, who said terrorists would be “celebrating” the team’s decision to pull the tour.
The announcement to cancel the games, made after Inter coach Roberto Mancini had insisted the Italian team would go ahead with the tour in spite of the attacks on London’s transport network, was also condemned by the British clubs involved
Leicester had been investigating the possibility of suing the club, stating that Inter’s cancellation would have cost them over £250,000.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Italy’s ambassador to Britain, Signor Giancarlo Aragona said the tour would now go ahead and insisted there had been a misunderstanding after Inter took advice from security services about the safety of the trip.
“There was some confusion, they wanted to make sure the conditions on both sides were correct. They wanted to check the feasibility,” he said.
