An American and Manchester United fan were hospitalized after being stabbed Wednesday ahead of the Champions League final. Fifteen people, including United and Barcelona supporters, were arrested.
Four Italians were arrested in Ostia, on the coast near Rome, after they attacked an American, apparently mistaking the 23-year-old man for a United supporter. The man was beaten up and stabbed in his thigh and backside and hospitalized in serious condition, police said.
A United fan was stabbed in the thigh, police said. The fan told investigators that four attackers who spoke Spanish attacked him near his hotel in the Vatican area. He was discharged from the hospital later Wednesday.
Hospital officials and police do not identify the victims for privacy reasons.
Up to 50,000 United and Barcelona supporters converged on Rome for the match Wednesday night. Thousands of law enforcement officials have been deployed around the Olympic Stadium and the city center, at airports and subway stops. Others were guarding Rome’s monuments and artistic treasures.
Three Barcelona fans were arrested after police searched their car and found blunt objects, including clubs and a javelin, police said. They were traveling from Civitavecchia, a port near Rome where hundreds of Spanish fans had arrived by ship.
Two United fans were arrested for assaulting bystanders and police in Campo de Fiori, a historic piazza and popular tourist hangout. Police said the men were drunk despite a ban on alcohol sales imposed by authorities in areas including the city center and near the stadium.
The ANSA news agency said two United fans were arrested for trying to pay at the posh Cafe de Paris with counterfeit money.
Hundreds attended Pope Benedict XVI’s public audience at the Vatican, waving their flags and scarves before the pontiff. The match referee, Massimo Busacca of Switzerland, greeted the pope at the end of the audience.
Some 67,000 people packed the stadium for the match. VIPs include the Spanish royals and Britain’s Prince William, who was invited by the English Football Association as the organization’s president; Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, an avid Barcelona fan, and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
