The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) opened an investigation on Wednesday into anti-Semitic chants by fans of the Lazio in the game against Napoli for the 25th round of the Italian Championship, weeks after the club was punished for racist chants.
According to a FIGC source, a group of supporters of the Roman team would have shouted slogans in reference to the Holocaust before entering the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples.
A video shows these people screaming in the presence of stadium security and local police. These attackers recognize themselves as racists and hurl insults at their Roma rivals, claiming that their parents were deported by the Nazis to the gas chambers.
On Tuesday, the FIGC announced it would investigate racist chants by Lazio fans in the same game against Nigerian Napoli striker Victor Osimhen.
In January, the northern sector of the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where Lazio’s ultras are based, was closed during a game after racist chants against Lecce players Samuel Umtiti and Lameck Banda.
Racist chants are a phenomenon in Italian stadiums and Lazio fans have staged similar episodes in the past.
After a season and a half with stadiums closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, racist incidents returned to Serie A last year.
Kalidou Koulibaly, Victor Osimhen, Mike Maignan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are some of the players who have been the target of such abuse in stadiums in Italy on previous occasions.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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