Call to ban female fans ‘a bad joke’

– Italy’s football federation chief yesterday slammed as a “bad joke” the call by diehard Lazio ultra fans to ban women to the back rows of the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

A leaflet being attributed to Lazio ultras was circulated before the team’s opening Serie A game – a 2-1 loss to Napoli – calling for women to be banned from the “sacred place” of the front rows in the Italian capital.

“It was the bad joke of the summer,” FIGC commissioner Roberto Fabbricini told Radio Anch’io Sport yesterday.

“When we talk about a stadium that must go back to being a meeting point for families, ghettoising a group of people seems very stupid to me.”

“We do not admit women, wives or girlfriends, so, if this is the case, we invite you to position yourself from row 10 onwards,” the leaflet stated. –