UEFA Punishes Lazio And Atlético Madrid After Fans’ Misconduct

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

The governing body of European football has announced that sections 48 and 49 of Lazio’s Curva Nord will be closed for the club’s upcoming Europa League home match against Porto on November 7, due to instances of racist behavior exhibited by some fans during their 4-1 victory over Nice last week.

Lazio was 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) and received a suspended ban for selling tickets to their away fans for a UEFA competition match. The suspended ban is under a probationary period of one year.

Atletico fans showed “racist/discriminatory” behavior 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.”