Murano resident reported children, aged between 12 and 13, to the police
Italy might be a football-loving country but that did not stop police in Venice from pursuing a group of unlikely targets: 14 children who fell foul for playing the game in a public square, leading to fines presented to their parents, in a move that has sparked a debate about the rights of young people to play outdoors.
The children, aged between 12 and 13, were playing football earlier this month in Pino Signoretto square in Murano, an island of about 4,500 inhabitants in the Venetian lagoon, when a resident, annoyed by the noise they were making, reported them to the police.
Police officers then went to the square and identified each child before their parents were summoned and ordered to pay a €50 (£43) fine on their behalf. The children were allegedly playing football in a prohibited area, “creating a disturbance to the public peace and a danger for people in transit”, according to the official notice given to the parents and published in the Italian press.
Antonio Trampus, the father of one of the children, told La Stampa: “My son called me in tears. The police wouldn’t listen to reason. They could have called us parents and asked us to take our children home. Instead, they immediately took their names and addresses.”
