Soccer: Row erupts over Lazio striker's fascist salute

Fans of Italy's Lazio club have threatened to stage mass protests if Paolo Di Canio, the flamboyant striker, is disqualified for celebrating a win over Roma with a fascist salute.

National football federation officials opened an inquiry after Di Canio, 35, flashed the straight-armed, flat-handed gesture known since the rule of the World War II dictator Benito Mussolini as a "Roman salute", at the end of last week's derby in which Lazio crushed Roma 3-1.

The forward, who earned a reputation for his erratic temperament while playing for English club West Ham, denied there was political significance in the sinister greeting captured on photographs published around Italy.

"I am a professional footballer and my celebrations had nothing to do with political behaviour of any kind," he said.

Lazio fans, known as "Ultras", long have been notorious for their neo-fascist tendencies.

Famous supporters include Daniela Fini, wife of Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, who heads the "post-fascist" National Alliance Party founded by former members the Italian Social Movement, a grouping led by ex-blackshirts from Mussolini's totalitarian regime.

A spokesman for the most uncompromising Ultras, the so-called Irriducibili, Fabrizio Toffolo, claimed that left-wing players such as Cristiano Lucarelli, a Livorno striker, made clenched-fist salutes during matches with impunity.

"If Di Canio is disqualified there will be 30,000 of us demonstrating outside the Soccer League offices," he said. Encouraging fascism is a crime under Italian law.

A club statement also rallied behind the striker, saying the controversy showed Roma supporters are bad losers.

"The result on the field was well deserved and celebrations by players and fans were absolutely legitimate," a Lazio statement said.

Di Canio has the word dux, the Latin term from which Mussolini styled himself Duce [leader], tattooed on his arm. In an autobiography, he said he was fascinated by the dictator who he called "basically a very principled, ethical individual". Alessandra Mussolini, the dictator's granddaughter, who recently left the National Alliance to found a new far-right party, approved of the antics.

"How nice that Roman salute was: it delighted me so much. I shall write him a thank-you note."

Among those who disagree, however, was Andrea Della Valle, president of the Fiorentina club, who Lazio also defeatedat the weekend.

"Every city would like to have a player with talent like his, but Di Canio went too far. I would not have accepted such an attitude."

- INDEPENDENT