After this morning’s insulting banner, now Roma fans announce they’ll boycott games in protest at President James Pallotta.
The row exploded after the Curva Sud will be closed against Atalanta due to offensive banners and chants mocking Antonella Leardi, whose son Ciro Esposito was killed by a Roma fan in May 2014.
After this morning’s insulting banner, now Roma fans announce they’ll boycott games in protest at President James Pallotta.
The row exploded after the Curva Sud will be closed against Atalanta due to offensive banners and chants mocking Antonella Leardi, whose son Ciro Esposito was killed by a Roma fan in May 2014.
Pallotta went on the official Roma radio station and referred to the supporters who made those banners as “****ing idiots.”
Now the ultras have taken the phrase as a source of pride and are hitting back at American Pallotta, releasing their own statement with on the backdrop a season ticket from 1933-34.
“When you were just born, we were at the Campo Testaccio for any old Roma-Dominante game and when there was still no trace of you in your father’s balls, we were in Turin for a Roma-Milan that sealed our only relegation.
“When you were excited by your Boston Celtics, we drew 2-2 against Atalanta with a Pruzzo brace, while later – when you cheered for a tap-in – we were celebrating our Roma-Torino and crying for our Roma-Liverpool.
“At the age of 53 you became owner of our Roma and the first thing you did was modify the 1927 club badge. You made many wonderful promises that we believed, albeit with the wary eye of a Roman.
“Meanwhile, in every stadium, we Roma fans were insulted with chants and banners that we never complained about, because it’s part of football and not sports like basketball with megascreens telling the audience when to applaud.
“Yet you dared call 14,000 fans ‘****ing idiots’ and refused to look after those who paid you in advance, playing the game of the new Millennium moralists (journalists, observers and Leagues of various nature) who have always done nothing for Roma and its supporters.
“This is why we are angry with you, James, and this is why out of solidarity with the Curva Sud we too will stay outside the stadium for Roma-Atalanta. We invite all the real Giallorossi fans to do the same.”