Lazio ultras want to ban women from 'sacred space' at team's Rome stadium
"In the trenches, we do not allow women, wives and girlfriends," says a flyer handed out by die-hard Lazio fans before a game.
Sunday 19 August 2018 14:48, UK
The die-hard fans of one Italian top flight team want women to stay away from their "sacred space" in the stadium, according to news reports.
The flyer by Lazio ultras was reportedly circulated before the team's opening Serie A game against Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Saturday.
"The Curva Nord represents for us a sacred space," said the flyer, which many fans shared on social media.The Curva Nord is the area in the stadium where the Lazio fans gather.
"An environment with an unwritten code to be respected.
"The first few rows, as always, have been experienced like the trenches.
"In the trenches, we do not allow women, wives and girlfriends, so we invite them to position themselves from the 10th row back."
The flyer invited those who choose a football game as a substitute for a "romantic walk in Villa Borghese" (one the main parks in the Italian capital) to seat somewhere else in the stadium.
The case made headlines in Italy, with all major newspapers reporting it. The ANSA news agency said fans confirmed seeing the flyer as they left the stadium at the end of the match.
The controversial note is not the first time Lazio's ultras - known for their far-right views - have sparked an outcry.
At a game in November, they distributed stickers showing Holocaust victim Anne Frank in a Roma shirt along with anti-Semitic messages, in an attempt to taunt their long-time city rivals.
In February 2017 the club was sanctioned after their ultras subjected Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly to racist abuse.
Back in 1998 the ultras again targeted Roma, unfurling a banner which read: "Auschwitz is your homeland, the ovens are your homes."