Italy is the land of divisions: Left vs Right; North vs South; Religious vs Secular.
In soccer, perhaps no division is as bitter as the one between fans of the two Rome teams, AS Roma and Lazio. Now, a dispute between the two over a crucial match on Sunday has spilled into politics and become a national case.
On Sunday, Lazio lost 2-0 at home to Inter, the club that is locked in a fight with Roma for the Serie A title. Lazio fans packing the Stadio Olimpico cheered, happy to have hurt Roma’s chances to win the title. Lazio drew accusations of being unsportsmanlike and handing Inter an easy victory in order to deliberately hurt Roma.
A Lazio victory would have kept Roma — which had won the day before — atop the standings. The loss put Inter on top again, with a two-point lead with only two games to go.
Comments on Monday ranged from “farce” to “shame” to “embarrassing.”
“Inter: It’s easy that way,” said Rome daily Il Messaggero.
“Surreal Match,” wrote La Gazzetta dello Sport in a front-page editorial.
“Those who love sports, not just football, cannot celebrate in seeing Lazio’s quiet obedience to its fans, who wanted it to lose,” Italy’s largest sports daily wrote.
The status of the two teams is very different this season: Roma is a contender for the scudetto, battling neck-and-neck with four-time defending champions Inter; Lazio are fighting to avoid relegation to Serie B.
However, Lazio got to have a say in the fight for the title. They lost to Roma in a tense derby last month. They got their revenge on Sunday.
Untouched by the criticism, Lazio fans celebrated in the stadium when Inter scored. They showed banners that mocked Roma, with one saying: “Scudetto: Game Over.” Some even celebrated in the streets of the capital, the way fans do when their team actually wins.
Roma president Rosella Sensi said she “would be ashamed to win that way.”
Inter president Massimo Moratti brushed the controversy aside.
“It’s a problem between Roma and Lazio, it doesn’t concern Inter,” he said, but did concede that, “the crowd was completely with us and that was a very odd situation.”
Soccer in Italy has a strong political dimension, and this latest dispute has transcended sport.
Politicians were quick to react on Monday, and for once their opinions didn’t follow the traditional left vs right divide — but rather their soccer allegiances.
Some lawmakers said they were seeking a parliamentary investigation lamenting the fact that games are held at different times. They say this affects a race that is down to the wire.
The dispute even reached the spokesman for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Daniele Capezzone, who called on team executives and players alike “to provide convincing explanations of what happened.”
Berlusconi, himself a soccer enthusiast and owner of AC Milan, has not publicly commented.
The rivalry between teams in Italy can be ferocious.
Lazio president Paolo Lotito said on Monday that prior to the match he had received an envelope with bullets and death threats in case his team did not beat Inter, the ANSA news agency reported.
After the last Roma-Lazio derby in April, seven fans were injured, some suffering knife wounds, in clashes between supporters.
In 2004, the derby was stopped three minutes into the second half when a false rumor spread through the stadium that police had killed a boy outside the stadium, sparking riots.
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