The image sticks to him, but this reputation is fueled by the facts: Lazio, an Italian club from the Roman capital, is regularly cited in the news for the fascist acts of some of its fans.
This Tuesday, March 5, on the sidelines of the Champions League round of 16 second leg against Bayern (3-0 defeat), this was once again the case.
Laziale supporters went to the Munich beer hall where Hitler had adopted the program of the Nazi party.
One of them was arrested after performing Nazi salutes.
Between songs, insults and violence, the scenario repeats itself tirelessly.
On January 10, Società Sportiva supporters were already showing off in a very bad way.
During the derby against AS Roma in the Italian Cup, Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku was the target of monkey cries and racist insults.
According to Serie A, these comments came from three different stands at the Olympic stadium in Rome.
In a press release, the Italian league announced the closure of these for the next Laziale home match.
The reason given: “songs imitating the cry of the monkey, rude, insulting and racist” sung by “90% of the 16,000 supporters filling these stands”.
A year earlier, in January 2023, Frenchman Samuel Umtiti was targeted by Roman supporters.
The defender was then playing in Lecce and burst into tears.
“Alarming for our country”
If Lazio regularly condemns these acts, a large section of its supporters openly claim to be fascist.
This is clearly displayed in the stands.
In March 2023, three Lazio fans were banned for life from the Olympic Stadium.
One wore a jersey flocked with “Hitlerson” and stamped with the number 88, a symbol of the neo-Nazi movement referring to the Hitler salute, by the place of the letters of the alphabet (the 8 corresponding to the H).
The other two had been seen performing fascist salutes.
Other despicable acts have taken place in the stadium in recent years: in 2021, an eagle trainer, hired by a service provider, also performed a fascist salute while the public chanted “Duce!”
Duce!
".
The title given to the dictator Benito Mussolini.
In 2017, a resounding controversy animated all of Italy.
Lazio supporters, during a derby against AS Roma, had hijacked the figure of Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl deported during the Holocaust.
The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, was outraged.
In a press release, the government indicated that using the image of Anne Frank "as a sign of insult and threat, apart from being inhuman, is alarming for our country, which has suffered contagion, there at 80 years old, from the narrow-minded cruelty of anti-Semitism.”
In 1998, an odious banner was displayed during another derby against Roma: “Auschwitz is your homeland, the ovens are your homes.
»
Read alsoInsults against Umtiti: racism, this “trivialized” evil in society which is eating away at Italian football
Lazio is today the symbol of widespread passivity in Italian football.
Racist incidents regularly occur on transalpine lawns.
If sanctions are taken – most of the time the closure of stands or matches behind closed doors – the underlying problem remains.
In January, Mike Maignan walked off the field during a match against Udinese after being the target of insults.
The goalkeeper of AC Milan and the Blues was indignant, tired of these unbearable events: “We made press releases, advertising campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed.
Today, an entire system must take its responsibilities.
»
The history of Società Sportiva Lazio is closely linked to that of fascism.
In 1927, when several Roman clubs united to form AS Roma, the club with the sky blue jersey opposed it.
He benefits from the support of Giorgio Vaccaro, a general in the Volunteer Militia for National Security, a fascist military body.
Protected, Lazio survives and its rivalry with the she-wolf club begins.
Also read “I am Mike, standing, black and proud”: Maignan, a goalkeeper who never gives up in the face of racism
In 2021, the Italian club hit the headlines after offering his first professional contract to the great-grandson of Benito Mussolini.
Now on loan to Pescara, Romano Floriani Mussolini, 21, assured then that he was not interested in politics.
But his mother, Alessandra Mussolini, MEP, is known for having defended Mussolini's heritage in Italy.