{"id":847585,"date":"2026-09-14T15:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847585\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:04:14","slug":"top-of-the-table-empty-in-the-stands-inside-the-revolt-against-lazios-owner-serie-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/847585\/","title":{"rendered":"Top of the table, empty in the stands: inside the revolt against Lazio\u2019s owner | Serie A"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gennaro Gattuso has given some memorable post\u2011game interviews down the years. Who could forget his \u201csometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit\u201d rant<\/a> at OFI Crete, or the face of the beleaguered interpreter tasked with translating it? Last year, not long before taking charge of the Italian national team, Gattuso got into a finger\u2011jabbing, language\u2011swapping, almost\u2011nose\u2011to\u2011nose shouting match with Josko Jelicic<\/a> on Croatian television.<\/p>\n

And yet there was something more affecting about the soft way he spoke on Saturday, in Calabrian\u2011accented Italian. Without anger, but with an air of melancholy. \u201cFor me, football without fans is shit,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat do you think? I\u2019d say it\u2019s better to stay home. Better to go for a walk with the dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had just seen his Lazio side let a two-goal lead slip at home against Milan<\/a>, but that was hardly a disaster. The Biancocelesti are still top of the table, at least until Roma and Inter play on Monday. For a team who lost several starters in the summer, who began Gattuso\u2019s tenure with a cup defeat by a Serie B club in August, and whose fans refuse to enter their own stadium, this season has so far exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n

It might represent the beginnings of a redemption arc for Gattuso, who stood down from managing the Italy men\u2019s national team<\/a> in April after failing to qualify for the World Cup. He was not a popular choice to succeed Maurizio Sarri in Rome. Yet he is also not the reason why supporters are boycotting Lazio\u2019s home games in huge numbers. Season ticket sales have fallen from close to 30,000 last year to less than 4,500, according to the football finances website Calcio e Finanza<\/a>. Last season\u2019s home game against Milan drew 50,000 spectators, but the same fixture on Saturday had less than half that number, with a noisy majority cheering for the visitors.<\/p>\n

Lazio\u2019s fans have not stopped caring. Hundreds gathered outside the team\u2019s training ground before the Milan game, forming a convoy of mopeds to escort the players\u2019 bus to Ponte Milvio<\/a> \u2013 a bridge that crosses the Tiber River close to the Stadio Olimpico. A statement released by organised supporters\u2019 groups beforehand had announced their intention to go from there \u201cto watch the game in a pub or at home\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gennaro Gattuso said that football means very little without fans amid Lazio\u2019s supporter boycott. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino\/AP<\/p>\n

It is an act of protest specifically against the club\u2019s owner, Claudio Lotito. Supporters have travelled in their thousands to away games, even for unglamorous pre-season friendlies, reinforcing the message that they still care about their club but do not want to endorse the man who controls it.<\/p>\n

The feud with Lotito is not new. In January an open letter was posted to the Change.org website accusing him of denying fans the right to dream<\/a> throughout his more than two decades as owner. \u201cIt has been years, almost seven, since we lifted a trophy,\u201d reads the petition, signed by more than 45,000 people. \u201cThese are years in which we have not signed a footballer to stir the heart of fans young and old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideSerie A resultsShow<\/p>\n

Venezia 2-4 Fiorentina<\/p>\n

Genoa 1-1 Frosinone<\/p>\n

Lazio 2-2 Milan<\/p>\n

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Lecce 3-2 Monza<\/p>\n

Napoli 1-0 Bologna<\/p>\n

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There are layers to these grievances. The letter references the club\u2019s handling of a memorial for Vincenzo Paparelli, a Lazio supporter killed by a flare fired from the Roma end during a derby in 1979. Lotito was accused of denying Paparelli\u2019s niece a chance to walk on to the pitch during an event last November. He denied that version of events<\/a> at the time, saying \u201cthe real problem was that four representatives of the organised support wanted to go with her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lotito has at other times been accused of simply not paying attention to Lazio<\/a> while his focus is elsewhere. He is active in politics, having been elected to the Italian senate in 2022.<\/p>\n

He bought another football club, Salernitana, in 2011, and over the next 10 years helped them to get promoted from Serie D to the top flight, at which point he was forced to sell up due to the conflict of interest created by having two teams in the same league. Italian football\u2019s rules have since been modified to prevent simultaneous ownership of two teams in the top three divisions, but that did not deter Lotito from completing the takeover of another fourth-tier club, Reggina, this summer.<\/p>\n

Have such investments kept him from pursuing the big\u2011name signings Lazio fans crave? It\u2019s not exactly clearcut. Lazio could not have bought anyone last summer anyway, as they were placed under a transfer embargo for failing to meet liquidity requirements introduced by the Italian Football Federation. These, too, were the subject of debate, as Lotito argued they failed to weigh the club\u2019s successes in operating without major outstanding debts.<\/p>\n

Diego Moreira scored the equaliser for the visitors in a stadium that felt like a Milan home game. Photograph: Giuseppe Cottini\/AC Milan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Navigating those rules required selling a string of important players \u2013 Taty Castellanos and Matt\u00e9o Guendouzi in January, Mario Gila, Alessio Romagnoli and Ivan Provedel in the summer. But after the embargo was lifted, Lazio made some canny signings. The centre-back Danilho Doekhi arrived from Union Berlin on a free transfer, the striker Albert Gudmundsson came in on loan from Fiorentina, as did the midfielder Davide Frattesi from Inter.<\/p>\n

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The last of those looks like a steal, secured for a \u20ac5m loan fee this season, with a right to buy for \u20ac10m next year. Frattesi cost Inter more than twice that much when they signed him off the back of a break-out season at Sassuolo in 2023, only to keep him for the next three years as understudy to Nicol\u00f2 Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu and others in a stacked midfield.<\/p>\n

After joining Lazio this summer, Frattesi \u2013 still just 26 \u2013 said he had deliberately chosen a club that would put the weight on his shoulders. He scored in each of his first three games for his new club: winners against Bologna and Genoa, then the opener in a 2-1 victory away against Udinese.<\/p>\n

He did not find the net this weekend. This time, Lazio\u2019s best attacking work originated from Mattia Zaccagni on the left wing. He had a cross converted at the back post by Matteo Cancellieri in the 10th minute, then another forced home at the second attempt by Tijjani Noslin after a defender knocked it on to the crossbar. Zaccagni had a close-range attempt of his own well saved by Mike Maignan in-between.<\/p>\n

It could have been a rout. Instead at half-time Milan made three substitutions and one of the players introduced, the \u20ac50m signing Diego Moreira, scored a pair of fine goals to ensure the game finished 2-2.<\/p>\n

Might things have gone differently in a stadium packed with Lazio supporters, instead of one that felt like Milan\u2019s home away from home? \u201cMaybe with our fans here we would have managed to hold out,\u201d Zaccagni said. \u201cBut the draw is a fair result in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gattuso thanked the fans who had come to show their support beforehand. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone is happy with this situation,\u201d he said. \u201cI think everyone wants to come to the stadium, to have 50,000 people, 55,000 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think those fans came [to the training ground] because they recognise what the players are giving them. The fact of not giving up. The fact they are wearing the shirt with pride. That\u2019s my reading. And that made me emotional today, seeing the people who came. It\u2019s not football without the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n