Roma – “The away match prohibited for Lazio fans? An illegitimate act.” The Biancoceleste owner Claudio Lotito points the finger at the decision of the mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema. In agreement with the police chief and the attorney general, the first citizen has in fact banned the Lazio players from the Europa League away match against Ajax on 12 December. The reason? The risk of “extreme right, anti-Semitic and racist” demonstrations, in the wake of the recent attacks suffered in Amsterdam by Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv. An unwelcome justification for the club’s president, who defended his fans: “But what are we talking about? I’ve already spoken to the ambassador. What they did is an illegitimate act, also because there are no precedents that give us concern. Lazio today is a point of reference in the fight against anti-Semitism.”
Lazio, no fans away against Ajax: “They are anti-Semites”
Jacopo Manfredi
Sports director Fabiani: “The ban is third world stuff”
The words of the Biancoceleste sporting director Angelo Fabiani are echoed: “It’s third world stuff, I don’t think a city can’t manage a football event, it almost seems like an early crime, that is, before an event occurs they take a measure. It’s not football like that anymore.”
Abodi: “A very serious shortcoming”
A true diplomatic case, which also sees Italian politicians as protagonists. The Minister for Sport Andrea Abodi has in fact taken the defense of the Capitoline club: “It is truly very inappropriate, I believe it was a very serious shortcoming. I don’t like to generalise, it seems to me that the mayor of Amsterdam is not a disinterested witness to what happened a few days ago. Expressing oneself in that way towards Italian citizens, and doing so by generalising in advance, is not in the rules of good relations. We won’t pass this off as news.” The Capitol also took the field in defense of Lazio. The mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri called his counterpart from Amsterdam. The mayor – we read in a note – “wanted to reassure Halsema that the vast majority of Lazio fans have no connection with anti-Semitic, racist and violent positions and that the actions of a small minority of fans cannot allow for any generalizations” . Gualtieri also specified to the mayor – the text continues – “that the company led by president Lotito is a healthy company and has always been strongly committed to marginalizing these extremist fringes that damage the image of the team and the city, a phenomenon unfortunately present in many football fans. The Mayor, while respecting Halsema’s decision, also said he was available for any form of collaboration, should there be a willingness to review the decision made also to protect the thousands of Lazio fans who have already spent money to organize the away match.” Many fans have already threatened not to comply with the ban. Protagonists of a real class action, 500 people from Lazio entrusted the lawyer Giacomo Marini with the mandate to report the mayor of Amsterdam to the European Court of Human Rights and the Rome prosecutor’s office.
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