Don’t Let Lazio’s Boycott Turn You Away from the Stadio Olimpico

The Stadio Olimpico was at its raucous best last week as Donyell Malen rattled in a hat-trick in Roma’s 4-0 demolition of Fiorentina on the opening weekend of the Serie A season.

The stage for World Cup, European Championship and European Cup/Champions League finals, the biggest stadium in the Eternal City can conjure up an atmosphere with few equals in Italy.

Just don’t expect that to be the case anytime soon at Lazio’s home games.

The Biancocelesti made their home debut for the season on Sunday, with about 6000 fans attending the 1-0 win over Genoa.

According to Rome-based newspaper Il Messaggero last week, Lazio sold barely 4000 season tickets this summer, their lowest tally since Claudio Lotito bought the club in 2004.

To put the figure into context, Sampdoria and Palermo have each sold more than four times that amount, despite being in Serie B.

Worse still, Il Messaggero reported that Lazio sold almost 30,000 season tickets a year ago, meaning that nearly 85% of season ticket holders have opted against renewing.

It makes for a curious paradox for the calcio tourist wanting to watch Lazio in action at home. On the one hand, tickets are a lot easier to come by, even for the biggest fixtures, but the atmosphere at the Olimpico ranges from the diluted to the funereal, with swathes of empty seats.

“It’s very easy to buy tickets via the club website,” Biancocelesti supporter Scott Balam, one of the season ticket holders who opted against renewing, told Destination Calcio.

“There are no issues going – ultras aren’t stood outside the curva or anything. But it could be quite a surreal experience.”

There is, however, an important caveat. Last season, Lazio fans attended the game against AC Milan in mid-March and the Rome derby on the penultimate weekend of the season, along with the Coppa Italia final – the club’s first appearance in the fixture in seven years.

This season, the boycott will not include the Rome derby, and the Biancocelesti will continue to travel in numbers away from home.

The reason for Lazio fans voting with their feet? Lotito himself.

The club’s controversial president has long been persona non grata at the Olimpico, but the already non-existent relationship between him and the organised elements of the support completely disintegrated last season.

Ahead of the fixture against Genoa on January 30, the Curva Nord urged ultras and fellow Lazio fans to leave the Olimpico empty as a protest against Lotito’s “total mismanagement” of the club.

Remarkably, Lazio fired back, condemning the proposed boycott as a “grave and unacceptable act” that went far beyond legitimate dissent.

“Lazio cannot and will not tolerate actions that exploit the passion of our supporters to manipulate the sporting and social environment, causing real harm to the club and to everyone who supports us in a fair, free, and responsible manner,” read a statement from January 22.

The sales of Matteo Guendouzi and Taty Castellanos in the January window precipitated events, but the discontent towards Lotito had been building steadily for years.

It has now reached the stage where ultras and organised fan groups are no longer just disenchanted with the lack of ambition and signings, but have shifted their focus to the direction of travel off the pitch.

Amid the several decisions that have frayed the relationship between owner and fans, the incident surrounding Vincenzo Paparelli’s granddaughter has been among the most controversial.

A Lazio fan, Paparelli was killed in 1979 during the Derby della Capitale by a nautical flare fired from the Roma ultras. Last season, Lazio denied his granddaughter permission to walk over to the Curva Nord and pay tribute to the fans as they remembered him.

Organised fan groups have also raised concerns over the proposed renovation plans at the Stadio Flaminio, which Lazio hope to turn into a 50,000-capacity stadium ready to open in 2032, particularly the intended split of the new Curva Nord into two separate sections.

Libera la Lazio, Italian for Free Lazio, has been the refrain since January, a message that was made crystal clear through the repeated boycott of home games.

The Biancocelesti ultras and organised fan groups have pledged to continue the protests this season, announcing they would also stop purchasing club merchandise and would cancel pay-TV subscriptions, opting instead to watch Lazio in pubs and cafes.

And yet despite the boycott, Lazio remain one of the best-supported clubs in Italy. They opened their Serie A campaign in Bologna last week, with the official 2480 away allocation sold out in minutes.

Estimates indicate approximately 4000 Lazio fans may have attended the fixture in some capacity, either in the away end or under cover across the Dall’Ara.

The support remains as solid and as raucous as ever. Just don’t expect to see it at the Olimpico this season.