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Costa Nhamoinesu

Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor—
IT might have taken more than a year-and-a-half, but the long arm of justice finally caught up with racist fans of Italian football giants Lazio for abusing Zimbabwe international defender Costa Nhamoinesu, with the club marking its latest European home adventure behind closed doors at Rome’s Stadio Olympico. And, the punishment isn’t over yet. Lazio will also be forced to play their next home UEFA Europa League match next Thursday before an empty stadium at the 72 698-seater Stadio Olympico, an iconic venue which hosted the 1990 FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and Germany and the 2009 UEFA Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona.

The glittering arena where German captain Lothar Matthaus proudly lifted the FIFA World Cup on July 8, 1990, after a late 85th minute penalty converted by Andreas Brehme ended Argentina’s bid to successfully defend their title and left Diego Maradona in tears before 73 603 fans, will be silenced by the sins of the Lazio racists who abused Nhamoinesu.

The big stage where Lionel Messi’s second half insurance goal, after Samuel Etoó’s 10th minute opener, powered Barca to a 2-0 victory in the UEFA Champions League final on May 27, 2009, on an historic night when they became the first Spanish club to win La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions League in the same season, before 62 467 fans, will be silenced by the sins of those who abused Nhamoinesu.

This iconic football heater, which is this year celebrating the 40th anniversary of the year it hosted its first European Cup final battle – a four-goal thriller between Liverpool and German side Borussia Monchengladbach, which the Reds won 3-1 before 52 078 fans on May 25, 1977 – will fall silent because of the abuse dished out to the Warriors star.

That’s the prize Lazio, whose ultras have a history of racist behaviour, are paying on their return to European competition this year after some of their fans racially abused Nhamoinesu during a UEFA Europa League match in Prague on March 10 last year.

The first leg match ended 1-1 but it made headlines around the world after the referee was forced to briefly stop the match in the first half of that contest because of the racist abuse which was being targeted at Nhamoinesu by some of the Lazio fans. The referee ordered the public announcer to broadcast a warning to some of the visiting fans about the dangers of targeting Nhamoinesu with the racial abuse they were hurling at him during that match.

UEFA guidelines on racial abuse require referee to order such public warnings as a first step to try and stop the abuse and, in the event that it doesn’t stop, the referees have the power to abandon the match.

The European football governing body then revealed after that match they had charged Lazio with “racist behaviour” by some of their fans, “illicit chants” and displaying an offensive banner in that match. Nhamoinesu, to his credit, did not let that abuse affect him and played the entire 90 minutes before his team again fielded him in the return leg at the Stadio Olympico in Rome where he also played the entire match.

The gods of football appeared to punish the Lazio racists for their sins in Prague as Sparta turned on the style, away from home, and raced to a 3-0 lead in the first half which they defended for the remainder of the match to dump the Italians from the tournament and book a place in the quarter-finals. UEFA’s sanctions were that Lazio would play their next two home European club matches before an empty stadium and the Italian giants finished fifth in Serie A to qualify automatically for the group stages of this season’s Europa League.

Their first match was away in Holland where they beat Marvelous Nakamba’s old club Vitesse Arnhem 3-2 on September 14 this year before the sanctions, for abusing Nhamoinesu, came into effect in their home match against Belgian side Zulte Waregem on September 28. Lazio won that match 2-0 behind closed doors.

Their next home match in the Europa League is against French side Nice next Thursday and this match, again, will be played before an empty stadium because of their fans’ racial abuse of Nhamoinesu last year.

The Warriors star, who has recovered from injury, has featured in four matches for his club in the Czech top-flight league this season – against Slovacko on August 18, which they won 1-0, against FC Zbrojovka Brno on August 26, which they lost 0-2, against Karvina on September 10, which they won 2-0 and against Slavia Prague on September 17, which they lost 0-2. He played 90 minutes in each of the first three matches and then was substituted in the 89th minute in the derby defeat at the hands of Slavia Prague.

But, although Nhamoinesu is not part of the cast remaining in the UEFA Europa League this season, his participation in the tournament last year is still being felt by those who chose to abuse him simply because he looked different from them. He isn’t alone, though, at the end of this abuse. Lazio’s Serie A game against Napoli was overshadowed by racist abuse targeted at their opponents’ defender Kalidou Koulibaly which was so severe the match had to be stopped several times.

In 2013, they were charged four times by UEFA for racial offences during their Europa League matches against English side Tottenham Hotspur, Maribor and Borussia Monchengladbach and were ordered to play two European games behind closed doors. Last weekend some Lazio fans left stickers of Anne Frank – who died in the Holocaust – wearing a jersey of their bitter city rivals Roma forcing the Italian Prime Minister and the head of the European Parliament to strongly condemn the acts.

Italian football authorities have now ordered that all league matches this coming weekend will be preceded by the reading of a passage from Frank’s diary which reads, ‘‘I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquillity will return once more.”