球星马里奥·莫罗西尼的葬礼在意大利举行

The funeral of Italian footballer Piermario Morosini is to be held in his hometown of Bergamo.

意大利球星马里奥·莫罗西尼的葬礼将在他的故乡贝加莫举办。

Piermario died in the 31st minute of Livorno\s Serie B game at Pescara.
The 25-year-old Livorno player collapsed¹ and died during a second division match on Saturday.

More than 20,000 fans are expected to watch the funeral on giant screens that have been set up near the church.

On Wednesday hundreds of people queued to pay their final respects. A minute's silence will be held at matches across Italy this weekend.

One wellwisher carried a handmade banner with a simple message: "Thanks for everything - you'll always be with us."

The head of youth development at Morosini's first team, Atalanta, Mino Favini said: "He was a really sweet young man. He never asked anything for himself but always spoke² up for others in the team. It's natural that with such characteristics Piermario was popular among his peers³."

Initially⁴ it was thought he suffered a cardiac arrest（心搏停止） but a post mortem（事后剖析） on Monday proved inconclusive（不确定的） .

Morosini's death has raised questions about the procedures in place at Italian stadiums to deal with an emergency of the type that cost him his life.

Prosecutors⁵ are investigating whether a badly-parked police car delayed the arrival of paramedics（护理人员） on the scene.

And the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti - visiting Italy's Olympic hopefuls - said lessons had to be learnt to prevent similar tragedies in the future.