Mayor attacks Inter Milan’s decision to cancel tour
London mayor Ken Livingstone has criticised the decision of Italian football club Inter Milan to cancel a pre-season tour of England over safety fears.
In a statement released on the team’s website, Inter said it had taken the decision “so as not to further stretch the already severely occupied security services” in Britain in the wake of London’s recent bomb attacks.
Condemning the announcement to cancel matches at Portsmouth, Leicester, Norwich and Crystal Palace in the last week of July, Mr Livingstone said the terrorists would be “celebrating” Inter’s decision.
“I think that it is a very silly thing to do because it is playing the terrorists’ game. They want to change the way we live,” London’s mayor told Sky News.
“The terrorists, I am sure, will be celebrating their decision. The idea there might not be an attack back home in Milan, that they are more safe there than here, is a complete illusion.”
In reference to Saturday’s bomb attacks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which killed at least 83 people, Mr Livingstone added: “The truth is, as we have seen from the horrifying news from Egypt, nowhere in the world is safe.”
Club officials at Crystal Palace, site of the only match to be played in London, said they were “saddened and angered” by Inter Milan’s decision to abandon the English tour, pointing out that other international sporting events, including cricket and athletics tournaments, had gone ahead in the capital in the wake of the July 7th bombings.
Inter coach Roberto Mancini had previously insisted that the Italian team’s English tour would take place in spite of the attacks on London’s transport network.
But in the statement on the club’s official site, Inter said: “Football has taken a step back because of increasing serious events which touch the sensitivity of everyone.”
“For this reason, and given the situation, the club has decided to cancel the team’s tour of England.”
