Lazio is currently leading the Serie A table in an unbeaten, historic start to the season, yet they are playing home matches inside a nearly deserted Stadio Olimpico due to a total fan boycott related to an intense civil war between the supporters and club owner Claudio Lotito, which has caused spectator attendance to plummet.
Flashscore has explored one of the most bizarre revolts in European football.
Under new manager Gennaro Gattuso, Lazio has defied all odds to sit joint top of Serie A with Inter, after picking up 25 points from nine matches.
However, despite the success, you won’t have any trouble at all securing a seat for one of Lazio’s home matches, as an intense civil war between the supporters and club owner Claudio Lotito has caused season ticket renewals to plummet from 30,000 to under 4,500, leaving the 70,000-capacity stadium nearly vacant during home clashes.
Last season, around 50,000 spectators filled the stands against AC Milan, but when the two clubs clashed at the Stadio Olimpico in September, less than half that number were in attendance, and, to make matters even more bizarre, the majority of the Lazio fans present noisily cheered for the visitors.
The empty stands have nothing to do with the team’s performance and everything to do with a deep, systemic resentment toward president Claudio Lotito, who has run the club for over 20 years. The breaking point occurred when the Curva Nord (Lazio’s hardcore ultra group) organised a total home boycott.
It’s certainly not as if the “Laziali” (as the Lazio fans are commonly referred to) have lost their passion for the club. Before the vital clash against AC Milan in September, an enormous convoy of scooters escorted the players’ bus to Ponte Milvio – a bridge that crosses the Tiber River close to the Stadio Olimpico. But by then fans had already made a statement that they would not be present at the Olimpico as they intended “to watch the game in a pub or at home”.
But while Lazio fans have failed to show up at the Olimpico, fans have travelled in massive numbers to away games, even for unglamorous pre-season friendlies. No less than 10.000 Lazio supporters packed the away end at Sassuolo as the joint league leaders thrashed the home side 6–2 on Tuesday.
Reports indicate this was Lazio’s largest single travelling away support in nearly 28 years, stretching back to March 1999, when Lazio, with players like Pavel Nedved, Alessandro Nesta and Sinisa Mihajlovic, during the next season went on to win the Serie A title.
The feud between Lazio fans and club president Claudio Lotito has gone on for an incredibly long time—spanning over two decades, starting from the moment he took over the club in 2004.
In January, an open letter was posted on Change.org which accused Lotito of denying fans the right to dream. “It has been years, almost seven, since we lifted a trophy,” reads the petition, signed by more than 45,000. “These are years in which we have not signed a footballer to stir the heart of fans young and old.”
The dissatisfaction with Lotito has different layers. Fans accuse him of not paying enough attention to them despite their current promising results.
Lotito is not only active in politics and was elected to the Italian Senate in 2022, but he also extended his business empire in 2011 by purchasing another football club, Salernitana, which he helped get promoted from Serie D to the top flight and then was forced to sell the club due to a conflict of interest. However, during the summer, Lotito then went on to complete the takeover of another fourth-tier club, Reggina.
In addition, an old case continues to haunt the relationship between Lotito and the Lazio fans, dating back to a derby against Roma in 1979. Back then, Vincenzo Paparelli, a Lazio supporter, was killed by a flare fired from the Roma end. And during an event last November, Lotito allegedly denied Paparelli’s niece a chance to walk onto the pitch even though he claims that “the real problem was that four representatives of the organised support wanted to go with her”.
Fans accuse Lotito of refusing to spend the necessary capital to secure top-tier, internationally renowned players who could push Lazio into regular trophy contention.
Instead, the club has leaned heavily on lower-risk loans, free transfers, and prospects. It’s hard to confirm those grievances as Lazio were placed under a transfer embargo for failing to meet liquidity requirements introduced by the Italian Football Federation over the summer.
This prompted Lotito to offload a string of key players, among those Taty Castellanos and Mattéo Guendouzi in January, and Mario Gila, Alessio Romagnoli and Ivan Provedel in the summer.
To Lotito’s defence, it should be mentioned that several interesting signings were made after the World Cup, as centre-back Danilho Doekhi arrived from Union Berlin on a free transfer, striker Albert Gudmundsson came in on loan from Fiorentina, and midfielder Davide Frattesi, who was understudy to Nicolò Barella and Hakan Calhanoglu in Milan, arrived from Inter in what seemed like a €5m steal purchase.
The appointment of coach Gennaro Gattuso was initially met with a mixed-to-disgruntled reaction by the fans when he arrived at Lazio less than three months after resigning as head coach of the Italian national team.
But despite early scepticism, Gattuso has turned things around remarkably, driven by high-intensity pressing and standout performances from players like Mattia Zaccagni, Davide Frattesi, Gustav Isaksen and Oliver Provstgaard. And for a team that lost several starters in the summer, began the season with a cup defeat to a Serie B club in August and whose fans refuse to enter their own stadium, this season has already exceeded expectations in the Eternal City.