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Anne Frank scandal sparks stadium bans for Lazio fans
Thirteen Lazio fans have received stadium bans in connection with the anti-Semitic pictures posted at Rome's Stadio Olimpico last weekend, the city's police prefecture said on Friday.
Thirteen Lazio fans have received stadium bans in connection with the anti-Semitic pictures posted at Rome's Stadio Olimpico last weekend, the city's police prefecture said on Friday.
Video surveillance cameras helped authorities identify 20 people involved in the fly-posting of photos of Holocaust victim Anne Frank in a Roma shirt during last Sunday's game against Cagliari.
A 46-year-old man, who had already been issued with three previous stadium bans, was barred from entering grounds for eight years and ordered to report to a local police station on match days, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Twelve others were hit with five-year bans, with six of those sanctioned belonging to the "Irriducibili", the main 'ultras' group of Lazio supporters.
Politically correct nonsense, says Lazio director
According to Italian media, 13 of the 20 caught on camera are under investigation for "acts of racial discrimination by displaying anti-Semitic elements, offensive in their content and likely to incite racial hatred".
Tensions are running high in Italian football after the affair shook the foundations of the national sport, with extracts from "The Diary of Anne Frank" read out and a minute's silence observed before midweek matches.
But Arturo Diaconale, a Lazio director, feels the matter has been blown out of proportion and described it as "a wave of politically correct McCarthyism".
The Lazio ultras have previously been in hot water over Celtic crosses, monkey chants and fascist salutes leading to them often being portrayed as a fascist club.
The Irriducibili have constantly protested their innocence and claimed there "was nothing racist" about their monkey chants, and after the Anne Frank photo scandal, that "mockery and teasing are not crimes".