Lazio fan Alessandro Piperno has written a powerful opinion piece on the recent anti-Semitism row surrounding the club's fans.
Supporters of the Biancocelesti left offensive materials in the Curva Sud at the Stadio Olimpico, including pictures of Anne Frank wearing a Roma shirt.
Last night's Serie A games all began with a reading from Anne Frank's diary, and while this was widely well observed, there were some issues across the country.
Lazio fan Alessandro Piperno has written a powerful opinion piece on the recent anti-Semitism row surrounding the club's fans.
Supporters of the Biancocelesti left offensive materials in the Curva Sud at the Stadio Olimpico, including pictures of Anne Frank wearing a Roma shirt.
Last night's Serie A games all began with a reading from Anne Frank's diary, and while this was widely well observed, there were some issues across the country.
Lazio fans are said to have sung fascist songs after the reading, while some Juventus ultras turned their backs and sang the national anthem.
A small minority of Fiorentina fans whistled, while some Roma supporters chanted football songs over the voice coming out of the speaker.
Today the writer and literary critic Alessandro Piperno, who is of Jewish descent, has addressed the issue in a powerful column for Corriere della Sera, which can be read in Italian here.
Piperno writes that the memory of the holocaust “afflicted me since I was a boy”, before stating that “the only playful passion which can fill my heart is cheering for Lazio”.
It’s acknowledged that these two things could be considered “so different, so irreconcilable, so frighteningly distant from each other” given the actions of some Aquile supporters.
Piperno writes to “vent my astonishment, consternation and irremediable confusion in the face of all that is happening with Lazio and the holocaust” noting “isn’t it absurd to write those two things on the same page?”.
He then makes a 14 point list detailing his opinions about recent days, stating that “the acts performed in the Curva Sud are grotesque, by thugs who share only a sporting faith with me”, calling it “a pornographic disgrace which I hope will be punished with exemplary and unprecedented severity”.
Piperno also notes though that football clubs can’t be held objectively responsible – “why should I, a forty-year-old Lazio fan who has been going to the stadium for 30 years, be punished for the sake of scornful individuals who insult the memory of a large part of my family? Is it so difficult to find those who sing and scrawl and expel them from the stadium forever?”.
Lazio fans who seek to deflect or point to conspiracies instead of condemning the actions are described as “grotesque”, but so is the suggestion that other fans in the stadium should “replace law enforcement authorities” by taking action.
Also described as grotesque is using the image of Anne Frank for less offensive things, such as Facebook posts, and saying ‘We are all Anne Frank’, “because good Lord it’s evident that we’re not”.
Reading out “masterpieces which belong intimately to each of us, in half-full stadiums to widespread, legitimate indifference” isn’t the answer, Piperno says, nor is “including a minute’s reflection on anti-Semitism in a sporting event”.
Ultra groups who consider themselves political are called grotesque, but “even more grotesque are those who believe them” but “above all it is grotesque that a matter of public order becomes a pretext for proclamations, banners, slogans, moments of reflection, and sociological investigations”.