A Serie A owner has hit back at claims that AS Roma star Romelu Lukaku was racially abused during a recent Coppa Italia clash.
Lazio were fined €50,000 and given a partial stadium ban after they as a sporting judge deemed a large group of supporters had racially abused Lukaku during their 1-0 win over Roma in the Copa Italia.
Club president Claudio Lotito insists the supporters did not racially abuse Lukaku and says he is going to appeal the decision.
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"I don't want to start controversy. I'll reflect on it, in the report it says 90% of 16,000, wrongly, because there were over 19,000 present. Did you hear 17,000 people abusing Lukaku?," Lotito told TMW.
"If that were the case, I ask myself a question: the Gos observer, why didn't he make an appeal during the match? And the referee Orsato, precisely, why didn't he say anything?
"I don't want to go into the merits, but in life there are facts, you have to know how to lose. We try to also educate our people about the culture of defeat. When the management of certain situations is contaminated by fan positions it becomes a problem."
"We will appeal, and we will also take action in other places. Everything can be said about Lazio, but not that the team are racist or anti-Semitic or whatever they accuse us of.
"It is unthinkable for the undersigned, who as group leader is part of the Segre Commission, then there is Professor Gambino on the Board of Directors, as well as the president Mario Venezia of the Shoa Foundation within the Board of Directors.
"I didn't hear those chants, I'll be honest. But I'm not saying it because of a partisan problem, I'm saying it because no one heard them."
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