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Like something from a bygone era in English Premier League terms, Satuday's Coppa Italia final between Fiorentina and Napoli kicked off under a cloud of acrimony and outrage.
In the hours leading up the game, three Napoli fans were shot not far from the stadium, while more violence occurred elsewhere in the vicinity of Rome's Stadio Olimpico.
The uncertainty surrounding the match led kick off to be delayed by 45 minutes - a time period punctuated by the sight of Napoli's captain Marek Hamsik having to negotiate with a known ultra with mafia links in order for the game to go ahead.
For Italian football, which is already plagued by a number of issues related to violence and infrastructure, one would expect Saturday's events to lead to some soul-searching.
In fact, this issue may get forgotten about until the next such occasion according to football writer and Irish Times Rome correspondent Paddy Agnew who joined us on the line tonight.
"Each time these things happen, people throw up their hands in horror and say 'our football has got out of control' and 'what should be done with our terrible fans'. All sorts of learned articles are written about it, talks shows go on about it, parliamentary questions asked...and at the end of the day, nothing much happens," said Agnew.
He told us that he found one fact to be particularly disturbing and it centres on a Roma ultra called Daniele De Santis.
In 2004, De Santis was among a group of Roma ultras who intimidated Roma captain Francesco Totti into getting a Rome derby infamously called off.
A decade on, he was the same man who reportedly shot at Napoli fans at the weekend after getting into an altercation.
"It was the same Daniele De Santis who is in prison, charged with having started this whole thing off by firing six bullets at the Napoli fans on Saturday. So in ten years we've learned a lot and really progressed haven't we," said Agnew, who feels the powerful influence and threat posed by the ultras is dangerous for Italian football.
"In all sorts of areas of southern Italy, football is totally infiltrated by the mafia and last Saturday's events unfortunately condone that."
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