Lazio have been fined €20,000 (£18,600) but have temporarily avoided a stadium closure after the Rome club’s fans racially abused Mario Balotelli.
The Serie A judge Gerardo Mastrandrea requested that further details on the case be handled by the Italian football federation prosecutor to determine exactly where in the stadium the chants came from, and to to assess Lazio’s role in identifying those responsible, before possible further punishment befalls the Serie A club.
Sunday’s game was halted for a few minutes shortly after the half-hour mark and an announcement to stop the chants was made to fans at the stadium in Brescia. Brescia were leading 1-0 following a goal scored by Balotelli, who had also been subjected to racial abuse earlier in the match.
Balotelli posted a video of his goal on Instagram after the match and wrote: “Lazio fans that were today at the stadium SHAME ON YOU!” The 29-year-old was singled out by Lazio fans for abuse all match with other offensive chants, that were not specifically racist, against him and his family.
“As has always happened in the past, Lazio dissociates itself in the most exhaustive way possible from the discriminatory behaviour carried out by a very small minority of fans during the match against Brescia,” Lazio said in a statement after the game.
Balotelli was also the target of racial abuse earlier this season when he threatened to leave the field because of chants directed at him by Hellas Verona fans during a match in November.
Racism has been a problem all season in Italy with offensive chants also aimed at Romelu Lukaku, Franck Kessie, Dalbert Henrique, Miralem Pjanic, Ronaldo Vieira and Kalidou Koulibaly. All of the players targeted, except for Pjanic, who is Bosnian, are black, and many of the incidents have gone unpunished.