Greta Beccaglia, an Italian sports journalist, made the headlines in her country, not for a sporting fact, but for the sexual assault of which she was the victim live, on television, while covering the Empoli-Fiorentina match. It was Saturday, November 27, where, like every Saturday in the championship, Greta Beccaglia, 27, was doing her post-match report in front of the stadium for her channel, Toscana TV. Behind her, we see the supporters who leave the stadium in clusters, when one of them looks at her insistently and violently hits her buttocks with his hand, before walking away. Immediately the reporter told him that “this is inappropriate“, but another man who saw the scene tries to do the same thing, a third will succeed once the camera is off, that is to say after a long minute of discomfort.
The scene shocked Italy. For several reasons. First, because the studio presenter did not defend the journalist, but told her: “Come on, don’t take it the wrong way.” Then, because in front of the stadium, around her, no one reacted. And finally because that evening, all the matches of Serie A, Italian Ligue 1, were dedicated to the fight against violence against women. Since Sunday, the story has therefore made the headlines everywhere, on TV, on the radio, in the press.
Greta Beccaglia has decided not to remain in astonishment: she filed a complaint for sexual violence, the Florence prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, and the assailant was found. It is an Italian father, Andrea Serrani, in his forties, owner of a restaurant without history. Tuesday, he was sentenced to three years of stadium ban and in a statement, he said that he did nothing wrong, that he was always respectful of women, that besides, he has a daughter , but that he was angry that he had lost.
No hindsight, no questioning. The kind of reaction that no longer passes, evidenced by the thousands of indignant messages posted on social networks. “It’s a serious gesture yet, he doesn’t understand it, summarizes Greta Beccaglia at Corriere della Sera, that’s why I lodged a complaint, for all the women who, for their part, suffer violence far from the cameras, without the support that I benefit from today, so that by seeing me react, take legal action, they know that it is possible. “The journalist who adds that she wants to transform her trauma into something useful, which helps the victims and finally questions the men, all of them, supporters, fathers of families, brothers, uncles, friends, husbands, those who say they have it. there is nothing wrong.