The Italian football federation (FIGC) laid out new rules to improve the safety of stadiums and confirmed the suspension of the football leagues after hooligans killed a policeman during a Serie A football match.

Officials of FIGC and the Italian Olympic committee (CONI) Sunday proposed that unsafe stadiums would not be open to the public in the following season.

The Sicily derby, which saw visiting Palermo beat Catania by 2-1, was interrupted for about 20 minutes, when tear gas fired by police drifted on the pitch.

Teams playing in unsafe stadiums will have to use other sport venues, or play without spectators. Clubs are to become responsible also for what happens near the stadiums and will be invited to sever any existing ties with hooligans.

Anti-police slogans were painted on the walls of several Italian towns since the killing of Raciti, showing that hooligans are a real threat to football.

The officer's death follows that of Ermanno Licursi, the 41-year-old manager of an amateur team who was killed a week earlier in the southern region of Calabria as he tried to pacify an after-game clash.

Since 1962, 15 people have died inside or near stadiums during football games.