Pavel Nedved Slams 'Shameful' Graffiti Ahead of Juventus vs. Fiorentina

Juventus director Pavel Nedved has slammed the "shameful" graffiti that was discovered near Fiorentina's stadium ahead of the clubs' match on Saturday.

The graffiti mocked the Old Lady over the Heysel drama and the death of former player Gaetano Scirea, who died in a car crash in 1988. As reported by Football Italia, it was discovered on the same day Juventus players paid their respects to Davide Astori, a move that led to "hopes for a reconciliation and return to civility."

Nedved told Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) the graffiti pointed to a problem with Italian football rather than just Fiorentina:

"On such a day that we go to lay flowers in homage to the Fiorentina captain, seeing the memory of our fans and our historic captain defiled in such a way is sad. It is distressing, a bad example and shameful. This sort of attitude sadly is not a problem to be resolved for Fiorentina, but in all stadiums."

Juventus and Fiorentina's rivalry goes back decades, but relations between the two clubs appeared to have improved in the last few years. La Viola sold Federico Bernardeschi to the Serie A champions in 2017, and Marko Pjaca moved the other way this summer on loan.

Several Juventus players attended the funeral of Astori last year, and they laid down flowers ahead of Saturday's match at Stadio Artemio Franchi:

Astori died unexpectedly at the age of 31, hours before a scheduled match against Udinese in March.

Radio 24 presenter Giovanni Capuano shared an image of the graffiti:

The Heysel Stadium disaster saw 39 people die before the start of the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool in Brussels on May 29, 1985.