Two Chelsea fans were last night ‘chased by 25 ultras’ in Naples and stabbed, with one victim sharing a picture of his blood-soaked hand.
Witnesses say supporters were attacked while they walked to a bar on Tuesday night ahead of the Premier League side’s clash with Napoli in the Champions League tonight.
Two were taken to hospital where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries with the club warning other fans to ‘exercise extreme caution’.
One Chelsea fan claimed in a social media post last night that a knife was pulled on him and five supporters in an Irish bar ‘for speaking English’. It is not known if it is in relation to the same incident.
A terrified fan wrote on X: ‘F*** me man that’s was so f*****d, literally just going to another pub n 25 napoli ultra w knifes chasing us n stabbed one of my boys, everyone saying don’t go looking got trouble, we was literally walking to another pub and the was all there, so f****d, glad no one was seriously injured man.’
He later said he was ‘thankfully out of hospital just of course naturally shaken up’.
The club are urging supporters travelling to watch the Blues play Napoli on Wednesday night to take ‘extreme caution’ in the Italian city.
A Chelsea statement on social media read: ‘The club is aware of an incident that took place on Tuesday evening in Naples.
One Chelsea fan posted this image of his blood-soaked hand and said he’d been stabbed
Napoli ultras, pictured earlier this month, reportedly chased Chelsea fans down the street
‘Two fans are being treated in hospital, having sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
‘The club would like to remind all supporters to exercise extreme caution whilst in the city and take note of the advice shared ahead of this fixture.’
Local police and Napoli have not commented on the incident and the Italian city is notorious as a dangerous place for visiting fans.
There are 2,500 tickets allocated for Chelsea supporters to watch their side play the Italian champions at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium on Wednesday night.
And a police escort will accompany free shuttle buses for those fans to get to the ground.
Last October, Napoli’s ultras fought with Sporting Lisbon counterparts before their Champions League match in a huge melee in which chairs were thrown.
And there was also violence for the fixture with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2023 when eight people were arrested and 470 travelling supporters were kicked out of the country.
Several police cars were burned in that episode of violence on the streets and two police officers suffered injuries.
Chelsea are currently in the last automatic qualifying position in the Champions League group stage.
Cole Palmer is among the squad who have travelled to Naples with new boss Liam Rosenior
A victory over Napoli would see them through to the last-16 but a draw or defeat may consign them to a play-off game over two legs.
The Blues’ away form in the competition has been poor drawing against Qarabag before losing to Atalanta and Bayern Munich.
Napoli are five points behind the Blues in the standings but are down in 25th place and need a win to climb into the play-off round.
