Pioli, however insisted the number of fans were a few, and referee Irati stopped play for five minutes to attend to Koulibaly.
Advertisement
“I would also like to thank the Lazio players, but above all referee Irrati for his courage”.
Lega Serie A has now responded by closing the Curva Sud, the northern parts of the Distinti Tevere and Distinti Monte Mario stands for Lazio’s games against Hellas Verona and Sassuolo.
Gonzalo Higuain and Jose Callejon scored for the visitors to leave them top of Serie A, two points clear of Juventus.
Serie A has fined Lazio 50,000 euro ($56,000) and ordered the Curva Nord be shut for two games following the racial abuse suffered by Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly on Wednesday.
Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri was able to keep his team focused after an eventful evening in Rome against Lazio. “Those chants should not be heard and there is no justifying it, but we’ve also got black players and they are respected. It certainly wasn’t from the whole stadium”.
“We should congratulate [referee Massimiliano] Irrati because the situation was becoming embarrassing”. But I think he took it all in his stride because he is very intelligent, has a good head on his shoulders and was being helped by his teammates.
In his report, Irrati said the person responsible for public safety had told him he should allow the match to finish despite further racist chanting when play resumed.
Top-flight officials have been granted the power to halt or even abandon games in the face of discriminatory behaviour from fans following a series of racist incidents.
Advertisement
A year earlier, Boateng and his AC Milan team-mates walked off the pitch during a friendly match against Pro Patria when the midfielder was racially abused.
