Lazio owner and club president, Claudio Lotito has openly backed the fans of the capital club, some of whom were involved in racist chanting during their recent fixture with scudetto chasing Napoli.
From the off, fans from the clubs infamous Curva Nord targetted Napoli centre half Kalidou Koulibaly and just after the second half, monkey chants were easily heard which lead to the game being temporarily suspended by referee Massimilliano Irrati. As well as chants towards the Frenchman, the fans sang anti-Neapolitan songs.
The FIGC - whom Lotito is the Serie A representative for - acted swiftly and imposed a €50,000 fine on the aquile aswell as handing them a two game partial stadium ban - The second of the games had been suspended from an incident again involving the troublesome ultras but now Lazio must face the consequences. For the anti-Neapolitan chants the club were handed a further €15,000 fine.
"It's not racism"
The 58-year-old who has owned the club since 2004 claimed the media are "always against" him he told La Repubblica.
“They say they’ve eliminated violence, yet we got two games [closure]. Now what will they attack with?" he added.
Lotito's most shocking revelation was that what happened was "not racism" as "black lads play for Lazio too.”
Lazio boss Stefano Pioli however condemed the fans actions and couldn't understand the racist chants when "we have black players in our squad."
Pioli did make the important point that "it certainly wasn’t the entire stadium."
Koulibaly praised for conduct
Teammate, Keita Balde admitted post match that he had "so much admiration" for Koulibaly and further said that the game is "much more than black, white or green."
24-year-old Koulibaly thanked everyone via his Instagram account including "the Lazio players but especially the referee Irrati."
He thanked the referee in particular for "his courage" before declaring "Let’s go forward and Forza Napoli forever!"