Football, France bans Lazio fans from traveling to Marseille

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November 01, 2021French Interior Minister

has signed an order forbidding Lazio fans from traveling to Marseille for Thursday's match against Olympique, valid for the group stage of the Europa League. The decision, explained the minister, is due to the "violent behavior of some of his supporters".

In Marseille there have already been incidents, with 32 injured (almost all policemen) and 5 arrests, on 30 September on the occasion of the match against Galatasaray and we want to avoid the risk that certain events are repeated, given the non-idyllic relations between the Lazio and OM supporters.

"Lazio fans are prohibited from going to Marseille, either individually or in groups, and by any means - it is written in the ordinance -. They will be forbidden to enter any French border, road, port, railway and airport and also (for those already in France) in the metropolitan area of ​​Marseille ". All this, according to the ministry, "due to the

of certain groups of Lazio fans, who regularly create problems in the city centers and around the stadiums where they play".

The "habit" of some Biancocelesti supporters is then cited of "singing fascist songs and making the

". It is then recalled that on the last occasion in which Marseille hosted Lazio, on 25 October 2018," four people were stabbed the night before the match, in clashes that involved almost 200 people "and that also on the day of the match. game there were no incidents between the two sides. it should also be noted that during the first leg (0-0) on October 21 last year to the fans of Marseille the trip to Rome was prohibited.

"The decision by the French Ministry of the Interior to ban Lazio fans from traveling to the city of Marseille as a precaution is not surprising and is in line with what the Italian authorities have already decided in the first leg. application of the ordinance on a national scale and its unjustifiable reasons ". Lazio takes a stand against what they believe to be an "

biancoceleste and the club itself, which has always fought violent behavior and any kind of discrimination, inside and outside the stadiums with concrete actions ", reads the note from the biancoceleste club that follows the order of the transalpine interior ministry regarding the match of the Europa League scheduled for Thursday in Marseille.

As for the first leg to the Olimpico, in which the transfer to French fans was prohibited by the Italian authorities, so for the return match France applies the same measure. On the other hand, the content of the reasons is surprising, in which between one passage and another reference is made to the "violent behavior of certain groups of Lazio fans" and to the "habit" of some Biancocelesti supporters of "singing fascist and make the Nazi salute ". Waiting for "a clarification from the French institutions and a clear-cut exposure of our diplomacy towards expressions of indignation that all Italians should indignant", the Lazio Sports Society underlines in the note that "has always put in place initiatives aimed at promoting the value principles of sport and overcoming all barriers of a social, cultural, economic, ethnic and religious nature as has been widely recognized even at the highest institutional levels ", recalling how

, starting from what happened recently at the Velodrome in Marseille".