Lazio and Atletico Madrid punished by Uefa after racist behaviour from fans

Lazio and Atletico Madrid have been sanctioned for the racist behaviour of their supporters in European competitions, Uefa said on Friday.

The governing body of European football said two sectors of the Lazio stadium’s Curva Nord (48 and 49) would be closed for the Italian club’s next Europa League home game, which is scheduled against Porto on 7 November after the racist behaviour of some fans in their 4-1 win against Nice last week.

Lazio were also fined €45,000 (£34,432) for the infringement, which also came with an additional partial closure of the stadium for an extra game.

“Said partial stadium closure is suspended during a probationary period of one year,” Uefa said.

Atletico were fined €30,000 (£23,000) that came with a suspended ban of selling tickets to their away fans for a Uefa competition match. The probationary period is of one year.

Atletico fans showed “racist/discriminatory” behaviour in the side’s 4-0 loss in the Champions League at Benfica last week.

Anderlecht were also banned from selling tickets to their away fans for their Europa League game at RFS in Latvia on 7 November after Uefa decided to enforce “the suspended disciplinary measure imposed... on 21 October 2022 for lighting of fireworks, throwing of objects, acts of damage and crowd disturbances.”

Reuters