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Celtic fans stabbed in Rome ahead of Europa League match with Lazio

Two Celtic fans have been stabbed in Rome ahead of their team's Europa League fixture with Lazio, the Scottish team said

Published: 7 November 2019 17:22 CET
Celtic fans stabbed in Rome ahead of Europa League match with Lazio
Celtic fans ahead of the match with Lazio in Rome on November 7. Photo: AFP

In a statement on Thursday, Celtic said that the two supporters were “now in hospital and will receive every support from the club and the British consulate in Rome” after being attacked late on Wednesday night.

Italian media report that the fans were hurt in two separate incidents in the same central Rome neighbourhood, and that neither suffered life-threatening injuries.

READ ALSO: Anne Frank scandal part of Lazio fans' dark past

Around 9,000 Celtic fans are estimated to be travelling to the Italian capital to watch the Group E leaders potentially seal their place in the Europa League knockout stages, with a tense atmosphere expected between the two sets of supporters.

In Glasgow last month, some Lazio fans were filmed making fascist salutes before the two teams' previous encounter.

The home supporters then mocked the Italian club's notorious far-right 'ultras' with a banner depicting Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini hanging by his feet after being killed in 1945 with the message “Follow your leader”.

READ ALSO:

Visiting supporters in Rome have frequently been targeted by hardcore fans from the city's two clubs Roma and Lazio.

In 2013 two Roma fans were jailed for their part in a violent ambush on Tottenham Hotspur fans in the central Campo de Fiori district before Spurs' Europa League match with Lazio.

Around 50 far-right hooligans from both clubs orchestrated an attack that left one man stabbed and several others badly beaten.

The latest violent incident involving Lazio's fringe group of “ultra” supporters comes as other fans of the team pledged to change the negative “stereotype” they say surrounds the club at home and abroad.

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SPORT

Italy’s 1990 World Cup hero Totò Schillaci dies aged 59

Former Italy striker Totò Schillaci, most famous for being top scorer at the 1990 World Cup, died on Wednesday at the age of 59.

Published: 18 September 2024 11:46 CEST
Italy's 1990 World Cup hero Totò Schillaci dies aged 59

Italian media reported that Schillaci died at Palermo’s Civico hospital after a battle with colon cancer.

Juventus were among Italy’s football clubs to pay tribute to Schillaci, who became an icon for his unexpected goalscoring exploits at his country’s home World Cup.

“Ciao Totò,” Juventus said on social media, posting a picture of him in a black-and-white shirt.

Italy’s football federation FIGC said that all matches played in Italy between now and the end of the coming weekend would have a “minute of silence” before kick-off.

“His goal celebrations, in which his face became the symbol of collective joy, will remain forever part of Italian football heritage,” FIGC chief Gabriele Gravina said in a statement.

Schillaci played for Juventus and Inter Milan after beginning his career in the early 1980s at Messina and had moderate success in his club career.

But he became a national hero in the summer of 1990 by scoring six goals as Italy reached the semi-finals of that year’s World Cup.

Schillaci won the Golden Boot for being top scorer and won the Golden Ball as player of the tournament ahead of the likes of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona, the former of whom won the tournament with West Germany.

Italy were knocked out on penalties by Argentina in the last four as Napoli legend Maradona helped knock out the host nation in front of his own fans in Naples.

Schillaci, who was capped 16 times for his country, only scored one other goal for Italy in his career.

Four years after the 1990 World Cup, he left Inter Milan for Jubilo Iwata in Japan, where he ended his career.

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