The Catona football field, in the northern outskirts of Reggio Calabria, was damaged by an arson fire last night. The structure, named after the footballer Piero Reitano, one of the protagonists of amateur football in Calabria and Sicily in the 1970s, who died prematurely, had recently been renovated by the Municipality of Reggio Calabria. The flames mainly affected the new synthetic turf covering the pitch. The attackers, after having unhinged an external gate of the structure, reached the synthetic bales of turf, delivered a few days ago by a specialized company in northern Italy, setting them on fire. The State Police intervened on site to start investigations.
“We need the indignation of the whole city, we’re not going anywhere alone. We are tired”. This is the first comment from the mayor of Reggio Calabria, Giuseppe Falcomata’, who went to the construction site of the Catona football field, where the new synthetic turf was set on fire and destroyed.
“After what happened at Ecolandia Park and Pellaro in recent days – says Falcomata’ – we are recording the third worrying episode in the space of a few weeks. In this case the fire, of malicious origin, saw the flames hit the Catona sports field, now ready to be reborn. I immediately want to thank the state police for their prompt intervention – continues the mayor – who have already ascertained that it was an arson attack. I don’t know what to think anymore, as mayor I should say ‘we are ready to start again’ and ‘they won’t have won’ but today I don’t feel like telling you these things. This doesn’t make sense, I’m really tired. At this point we ask ourselves if it’s worth it, if everything has to be the subject of acts of vandalism, of hatred for the city: who did you spite? For the renovation of the Catona football field, the Municipality of Reggio Calabria has spent, so far, around 800 thousand euros.
