Two Italian supporters who were convicted last week of an unprovoked attack on a group of Tottenham Hotspur fans in a bar in the Campo di Fiori in Rome last November have been jailed.

Mauro Pinnelli, 26, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison while Franceco Ianari, 27, received a jail term of four-and-a-half years, after they were found guilty by a court in Rome of assault and grievous bodily harm.

Ianari, a market stall trader and AC Roma fan who had previously received a stadium ban for violence, was caught by police on a bus shortly after the attack. Pinnelli, a manual worker, was also an avid Roma supporter.

The attack on the Drunken Ship pub, the evening before a Europa League match between Lazio and Tottenham, was originally thought to have been committed by Lazio supporters but in fact the group was composed of both both Roma and Lazio fans.

The attackers pulled on motorcycle helmets and pulled out poles, knives and knuckle-dusters before launching the attack which left around 12 Spurs fans injured and witnesses likened to a “commando raid”.

Luca Tescaroli, the prosecutor in the trial, said they had launched an act of “wild aggression” in a place which was “symbolic” of Rome’s nightlife.

Police who investigated the 15-minute assault said it was “premeditated and well organised”, likening the violence to “urban guerrilla warfare”. The attack involved “knives, poles, iron bars, and chair legs”.

The targeting of the Spurs fans appeared to have been motivated in part by anti-Semitism. At the match, Lazio fans chanted “Juden Tottenham”, using the German word for Jew, and unfurled a large, provocative banner which read “Free Palestine”.

From Sky News