Thursday, 26 October 2017

*Lazio to wear image πŸ“· of Anne Frank on shirts after fans' anti-Semitic slogans

On Sunday, during a leading football match in Europe, fans of Italian club Lazio posted stickers around Rome's Stadio Olimpico depicting Holocaust victim Anne Frank wearing the shirt of city rivals Roma alongside anti-Semitic slogans. 
The head of Rome's Jewish community, Ruth Dureghello, tweeted a picture of the stickers, writing: "This isn't the terraces, this isn't soccer, this isn't sport. Kick anti-Semitism out of the stadiums." 
Italian President Sergio Mattarella was widely reported to have called the case "alarming for our country," while Lazio players will wear an image of Frank on their shirts during the warm-up to Wednesday's Serie A match against Bologna.

In a statement on the club website, Lazio president Claudio Lotito said the move showed the team's commitment to fighting "all forms of racism and anti-Semitism." 
According to Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, Lotito has also promised that the club would organize an annual trip for 200 young fans to Auschwitz, where more than one million people were murdered in a Nazi concentration camp. 
Italian police is investigating Sunday's incident, and using the stadium's surveillance cameras, has identified 15 people, two of which are minors. All are possibly facing charges of incitement to racial hatred.

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