About 60 Lazio fans detained with weapons ahead of Europa League game in Hamburg

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — A group of about 60 Lazio fans were stopped by German authorities after attempting to avoid a police escort ahead of a Europa League game against Dynamo Kyiv and were found to be carrying knives, clubs and other weapons, police said Wednesday.

Fans were checked late Tuesday and detained until Wednesday.

Lazio said in a statement that the fans held overnight were banned from attending Wednesday’s game but that there were no arrests.

Dynamo Kyiv is playing its home games in Hamburg because of the war in Ukraine.

Lazio supporters have a long history of creating trouble and the club has been hit with numerous sanctions both in Serie A and Europe.

Before a Champions League game against Bayern Munich in March, one Italian among about 100 Lazio soccer supporters who sang fascist songs in the beer hall where Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi party was arrested and fined for giving a Hitler salute.

A year earlier, a fan wearing a shirt with a reference to Hitler was banned for life from attending Lazio matches by the Roman club. Authorities reviewed security camera footage from inside the Stadio Olimpico after pictures of the fan wearing a Lazio shirt with the name “Hitlerson” and the No. 88 — which is a numerical code for “Heil Hitler” — circulated on social media.

Also in 2022-23, Lazio was ordered to play a Serie A game with part of the Olimpico closed to spectators after fans directed racist chants at opposing players.

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