“Let’s talk about it, I’m ready to listen to you”. A few words would have been enough to send a strong, very strong signal. An opening to that cry of love recited on Friday evening by over 7,000 Lazio people (the Police Headquarters says 5,000, the eye of those who were there speaks of 10,000, we’re halfway there) first under the Curva Nord of the Flaminio Stadium and then at Milvian Bridge. A strong message addressed only to Claudio Lotito, no other protagonist was brought into play. Neither the sporting director Fabiani, nor the new arrival Marco Baroni. The request is clear, expressed in more or less heated but rather clear tones. Put Lazio back at the center of the discussion, no longer the presidency. “Two things count at Lazio: Claudio Lotito and Claudio Lotito”. Lotito had said this a few days before the demonstration. The people of Lazio just want to talk about Lazio again, without having to demonstrate against the presidency. An outstretched hand towards that united people like few times in recent years would have been enough. And instead…
The search for conflict
And instead the president Lotito he decided as he always does to raise a granite wall in front of the people of Lazio. “I don’t care, anyway it’s always the same people who criticize me,” Lotito told Il Messaggero yesterday. They weren’t exactly the usual ones, because a similar cry of protest hadn’t been heard since Lazio-Sassuolo in February 2014. Ten years have passed and it’s grotesque to think about how many similarities there are today compared to ten years ago. The dispute came about a year after the peak of the first decade of Lotito’s management, the cup won in the derby on 26 May 2013. On 26 May 2023, Lazio celebrated second place in the standings at the Olimpico, the best position in the era Lotito. And just like ten years earlier, the company didn’t have the strength to build on an extraordinary year and took three steps backwards, finding itself in the middle of a record-breaking protest. “Time passes and you never pass” sing Negramaro. This sense of discontinuity never goes away in Lazio’s projects. This desire to clash and the inability to admit one’s mistakes never goes away. What never passes, however, is also love. The love of a people towards their colors which exploded yesterday under the Curva of that stadium where many dream of returning. “The love that moves the sun and the other stars” and that on Friday moved the city from Flaminio to Ponte Milvio. “Omnia vincit amor”, love conquers everything, this is the wish that the Lazio fans carry with them after the great demonstration of love on Friday evening.
