Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 6y

Lazio fined €50,000 over Anne Frank Roma stickers at Stadio Olimpico

Lazio have been fined €50,000 after some fans stuck anti-Semitic pictures of Anne Frank wearing a Roma shirt onto walls of the Stadio Olimpico's Curva Sud last October.

Lazio fans moved into the area of the Olimpico where Roma's hardcore fans are usually located for the Oct. 22 clash with Cagliari after their own popular section -- the Curva Nord -- was closed for two games following renewed racist chants in their previous fixture with Sassuolo.

After the game, stickers of Frank -- one of the most famous Jewish victims of the Holocaust after her diary of her life in World War II was published in 1947, two years after her death at the age of 15 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp -- were found scattered across the walls.

The Italian FA (FIGC) opened an investigation which has resulted in the Serie A club being fined on Thursday, according to an extensive disciplinary statement.

Furthermore, a dozen Lazio Ultras were placed under investigation for applying the stickers to the walls.

The behaviour of the Lazio fans drew widespread condemnation, with the Lega Serie A launching an initiative for the subsequent round of league matches which saw the captains of each of the clubs read extracts from Frank's diary before a minute's silence was held.

The FIGC prosecutor had asked for Lazio to be ordered to play two games behind closed doors, but the court decided only to fine the Serie A club because they had done all they could to prevent such situations from arising and the misbehaviour of "a very small minority of their fans" was not preventable, also since the "small dimensions of the stickers meant that these were not easily visible to stewards or gate control staff."

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