200 Lazio Fans a Year to Be Sent to Visit Auschwitz to as Club Seek New Initiative to Battle Racism

Claudio Lotito has revealed a new Lazio initiative, which will send 200 fans to Auschwitz every year to educate its fans on certain historical events.

The Biancocelesti fans were forced to move stands for the win over Cagliari on Sunday, after one stand was closed for racist chanting.

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After the match it was discovered that anti-Semitic messages had been left, including pictures of Anne Frank wearing a Roma shirt, such that this new Lazio initiative hopes to battle racism amongst its own fans.

“We’re here today to disassociate ourselves from any form of xenophobia and anti-Semitism,” President Lotito said on a visit to a synagogue, as reported by Football Italia.

“The overwhelming majority of Lazio fans share this position. We’ll do many other initiatives to suppress these incidents through daily action, such as visits by players to schools to educate about the rules, and overcoming social, racial and financial barriers."

Lazio's fans had been moved for their 3-0 win over Cagliari because Lazio's normal home stand was closed due to some fans aiming racist chants at Sassuolo's Claud Adjapong and Alfred Duncan during a Serie A clash on October 1st.

The new initiative will hope to combat the few Lazio ultras that continue to spread anti-semetic and racist images and chants across the stadium:

“Today I can officially announce that Lazio will partake in a new annual initiative, organising an annual trip to Auschwitz for 200 Lazio fans to educate and make sure we don’t forget certain episodes, so that these lads can know what it is we’re talking about," said Lotito.

“There are no racist images in the Curva today, in the past there were banners and flags which left no room for interpretation."

“Ever since I’ve been President there have never been banners or attitudes by which you could identify fans as racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic."

“There are bad apples in every community, unfortunately, we can’t put a steward on every fan."