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It's been one year since Napoli won the Coppa Italia, but that date brings another, less pleasant memory with it -- it's also been one year since the pre-match fights that broke out in the streets of Rome, when gangs of local Ultras starting picking fights with any Napoli fan they saw. Some of those fights turned ugly and brutal, with a number of fans winding up in hospitals instead of the stadium, with one fan fighting desperately for his life.
That fan was Ciro Esposito, shot by a Roma Ultra leader currently preparing to stand trial for what he did that day. Ciro lost his battle 50 days later.
#Napoli fans light up the city's seafront to remember Ciro Esposito, the fan killed a year ago pic.twitter.com/c41EH20Pet
— Matt Barker (@matthew_barker) May 5, 2015
Ciro's mother and several organizations have been using his death as a rallying cry against the senseless violence scattered throughout fan culture, but after the banner incident with Roma fans last month, the issues in the stands in the recent Turin Derby, and myriad other fan violence problems over the last year, we're still a long ways from that fight being over.