Rome soccer team that mocked rivals with Anne Frank stickers fined
Published January 25, 2018
SS Lazio players warming up with shirts depicting Anne Frank and saying “no to anti-Semitism”, at a match against Bologna FC at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in Bologna, Italy, Oct. 25, 2017. (Marco Rosi/Getty Images)
(JTA) — A soccer team in Rome that plastered a stadium with stickers showing Anne Frank wearing the uniform of a rival city club has been fined.
The Lazio FC team will pay a fine of $61,000, but will not have to play two games without fans as requested by the Italian football federation prosecutor.
The prosecutor had said that the stickers of Anne Frank wearing a shirt of city rivals Roma were posted in October in Rome’s Olympic Stadium with “clear anti-Semitic intent, constituting discriminatory behavior.”
Lazio President Claudio Lotito announced in response to the incident, that his club would take 200 fans every year to visit Auschwitz. Also, players woud visit schools to speak to students about respecting rules and stamping out racism and social barriers.
He also visited Rome’s main synagogue and laid a wreath there in memory of Holocaust victims and condemned the actions of the fans.
The football federation’s investigation found that the use of the stickers was “highly detrimental to the principles and values which must necessarily come with sport,” according to the Football Italia website.
It was found that the stickers were “clearly aimed at mocking the opposing supporters, with an absurd and outrageous reference to the Jewish religion.”
The investigation determined that up to 20 fans were involved in the incident.
Under Italian soccer rules, clubs are responsible for the behavior of their supporters in the stadium.
Following the incident, the soccer federation ordered that a passage from the “Diary of Anne Frank” be read at the start of all soccer games at all levels throughout the country.
