Uefa on Wednesday announced that Lazio will play their next two UEFA competition home matches behind closed doors plus fined the club €40,000.
Lazio was on a suspended sentence for instances of racist abuse from supporters during this season and stadium inspectors spotted around 300 members of the crowd performing Nazi salutes during the 2-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach last week in the Europa League.
The ban mean that Lazio’s Europa League game against Stuttgart on 14 March, will now be played behind closed doors.
Lazio are not amused at Uefa’s ruling and have already said that they will appear. The club’s President Claudio Lotito called this as an “abnormal and absurd” move by UEFA.
“It is an abnormal move compared to the reality of the situation,” said Lotito on RaiSport.
“Lazio did everything we could and should have done to stop this from happening. It seems absurd to me that we have to play behind closed doors, which will seriously damage the club economically and stop the fans from participating in this event.
“We cannot as a club be penalised for the mistakes of a small minority. We will lodge an appeal. I repeat, everyone knows how much we did to prevent this sort of thing from happening, achieving results that nobody else has on a national level.
“We must distinguish between the delinquents who act on their own volition and those fans who express themselves in a civilised fashion.
“It is not possible that a club has to pay for the errors of an individual.”
Not a good week for fans in Italy. First Inter Milan is fined for their fans making racial gestures towards Mario balotelli on the Milan derby, and now Lazio sees their ground closed for two European matches.