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ANTI-SEMITISM

Lazio handed suspended stand closure after fans’ anti-Semitic chants

Lazio football club was handed a suspended one-match stand closure after anti-Semitic chants by supporters during last month's derby win over Roma, Serie A said on Tuesday.

Published: 4 April 2023 16:34 CEST
Lazio football club fans
Lazio football club was handed a suspended one-match stand closure after a group of supporters made anti-semitic chants during the team's win over Roma on Sunday, March 19th. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

In a statement, Italy’s top football division said that the sanction regarded the Curva Nord section of the Stadio Olimpico, from where Lazio’s hardcore fans made “boorish and offensive chants, which were also of a religious nature, directed at Roma supporters”.

The statement added that the punishment was suspended for one year due to Lazio “assisting the police in identifying those responsible and […] trying to prevent anything similarly deplorable from happening again”.

READ ALSO: Lazio condemn fans’ anti-Semitic chants during Rome derby

A similar offence within that period would lead to the closure coming into affect alongside any new sanction.

Lazio, who are second in Serie A, said in the aftermath of their 1-0 win over Roma that they would ban three fans for life for anti-Semitic behaviour, including one who wore a now notorious Nazi message on his replica top.

He was a German supporter with the name “Hitlerson” and the number 88, a reference to the Nazi Germany slogan “Heil Hitler”, on the back of his top.

In January, authorities ordered the closure of the Curva Nord for one match following racist chants at Lecce which left France international Samuel Umtiti in tears.

READ ALSO: Lecce player leaves pitch in tears after racial abuse from Lazio fans

Lazio have some of the most right-wing supporters in a country where fascist fan groups are a widespread phenomenon.

That includes cross-town rivals Roma, who were fined 8,000 euros for racist abuse directed at Sampdoria manager Dejan Stankovic on Sunday.

Former Red Star Belgrade, Lazio and Inter Milan midfielder Stankovic was targeted with chants calling him a “gypsy” by hardcore home supporters until Roma coach Jose Mourinho demanded they stop.

The Italian word for gypsy is often used by some football fans as a racial slur for players from the Balkans and eastern Europe, regardless of their actual ethnicity.

Serie A said the punishment was limited to a fine because the chants from the Curva Sud area of the Olimpico stopped after Mourinho stepped in to defend Stankovic.

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PROTESTS

Protest staged in Milan over Winter Olympics

Activists protesting against the environmental impact of the 2026 Winter Olympics took to the streets of Milan on Saturday as part of a series of demonstrations against the Games.

Published: 11 February 2024 10:06 CET
Protest staged in Milan over Winter Olympics

Around 1,000 people marched on a soaking wet day in the northern Italian city to decry the building of infrastructure for the Milan-Cortina Games, including the event’s controversial bobsleigh track.

The march was organised by pressure group Unsustainable Olympics Committee, a network of hiking groups, environmental activists, heritage associations and left-wing political movements.

They contend the sporting event will have a negative impact on the environment in Italy’s mountains and the cost of housing in Milan, and have organised other, smaller protests over the last week.

“I’m here to defend the environment from an unsustainable model of development,” careworker Simona Antonioli, 29, told AFP.

“The mountains are increasingly becoming prey for speculators, and we also want more protection there.”

The Italian government announced earlier this month that the Games’ bobsleigh track would be built in Cortina d’Ampezzo, despite opposition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and after organisers had announced that sliding events would take place outside Italy.

The IOC said that the 82-million-euro ($88.6-million) project may not being ready in time for the extensive testing needed before the Games, while having little long-term benefit to local residents.

Italian construction company Pizzarotti, the sole bidder for the contract, has 13 months to build a 1,445m-long (4,740-foot) track which includes 16 bends and requires complex refrigeration systems.

“The mountains are not an amusement park,” said protestor Alberto Di Monte, 38.

To “turn the mountains into a track is to have the wrong idea of what the mountains are.”

Events at the Winter Olympics will be spread widely across northern Italy, as well as in Milan and Cortina.

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