European football governing body UEFA has passed sanctions on Italian side Lazio and their Spanish counterpart Atletico Madrid for their fans’ racist behaviour in European competitions. UEFA said this on Friday, confirming that two sectors of the Curva Nord in Lazio’s Stadio Olimpico would be closed for their next home fixture in the Europa League. Lazio will face Porto at home on November 7 when this sanction is to be carried out for the behaviour of their fans when they won 4-1 against French side Nice last week.
Furthermore, the Roman team are also fined €45,000 for the behaviour, along with an additional partial closure of the stadium for another game. The partial closure, however, will be suspended for a probationary period of a year. UEFA’s statement reads, “Said partial stadium closure is suspended during a probationary period of one year.”
Atletico were also hit with a €30,000 fine and a suspended ban on ticket sales to away fans for a UEFA competition game for a probationary period of a year. Atletico fans displayed behaviour classed as racist and discriminatory during their 4-0 loss to Benfica last week. Remember that Atletico fans disrupted the Madrid derby weeks ago when they threw objects on the pitch prompting the referee to suspend action for 11 minutes before the game resumed.
In other news, Belgian side Anderlecht were also hit with a ban from selling tickets to their away fans for their upcoming Europa League game against RFS on November 7. This ban was effected by UEFA after it had been suspended in October 2022. The sanction is to punish the acts of Anderlecht fans “for lighting of fireworks, throwing of objects, acts of damage and crowd disturbances.”
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