Police charge 7 over violent messages ahead of Naples cost-of-living march

Police in Naples have charged seven people with spreading messages that incited violence ahead of a march against the rising cost of living. The march is set for 15:00 CET (14:00 UK, 09:00 ET) on Saturday 24 October in piazza del Plebiscito.

It began with monitoring of social media and the web, stepped up after the clashes in Milan. Two of the seven are Napoli ultras who attend the Curva B and are already known to police. The other five are mostly young people with no criminal record, unemployed or in casual work.

Protest and match on the same day

The protest and the match overlap. Napoli host Roma at the Maradona at 18:00 CET (17:00 UK, 12:00 ET) on Saturday 24 October, and the turnstiles open at 15:30, half an hour after the gathering time in the square. The prefecture and the police headquarters have followed the situation for days and do not rule out restrictive measures. After the arrests and searches on Friday, attention on the whole day will be higher still.

Two people are not a curva, and that should be said plainly. The Curva B has distributed a leaflet asking those going to the stadium to wear the azzurri shirt. It is about the match, not the square. Those entering the Maradona on Saturday are going to a game to which the club has tied the second review of Allegri's position. Mixing the two would be unfair to tens of thousands of people.

But the facts cannot be ignored either. Two regulars of the Curva B, already known to police, are caught up in an investigation into messages urging violence at a demonstration that has nothing to do with football. Those who do not want the whole end to pay for a few should be the first to distance themselves, without waiting to be asked.

No details have been released on what the messages said or where they were posted. For Naples, Saturday is a day the police will follow hour by hour.