Lazio President Claudio Lotito claims the three red cards in their loss to Milan represented ‘a forced defeat’ that showed the FIGC ‘is not able to guarantee’ reliability, so he will push for a ‘third institution’ to judge.
The Aquile were already furious with referee Marco Di Bello after the first two incidents, where Mike Maignan collided with Taty Castellanos in the penalty area and Luca Pellegrini received a second yellow card when he was naively caught out by Christian Pulisic while trying to put the ball out of play.
The situation degenerated in stoppages after the Noah Okafor goal, when Adam Marusic was sent off for dissent, then Matteo Guendouzi very harshly received a red card for a reaction foul on Pulisic.
Coach Maurizio Sarri did not come to speak to the media afterwards, so only President Lotito arrived to lash out at DAZN.
“When the game goes like this, there have to be organisms set aside to evaluate the situation,” said Lotito.
“It means the system is unreliable and when that happens, we need a third level of the institutions to put an end to this situation. When you break the law, there is an institution to judge.
“In my view, today we went beyond the red line. We went beyond every imaginable limit. The club will make its voice heard in the right places for what everybody saw.
“If the system is not able to guarantee its own reliability, then we need to pose some questions. We will make our voice heard in other institutions.”
It comes just hours after Lotito had warned Lazio were behind the Lega Serie A plan to sue the FIGC and create a breakaway Premier League style division, so he was already inclined towards rejecting their authority.
No team had received three red cards in the same Serie A match since Palermo in November 2012 against Bologna.
“I don’t know who Di Bello is or where he comes from. The time has come for the Lega to create a third element outside of the system.
“I feel like the respect of the rules and of merit was lacking today. This was a forced defeat. A preannounced death. I know what institutions we should turn to and with which means to intervene.
“Football is about sporting values: today this game was entirely lacking in sporting values. I do not speak about this defeat with regret, but with the certainty of what I saw and what happened.”
Lotito also covered many of the same points with Sky Sport Italia.
“I wish to do what any citizen would do when the rules have not been respected. If someone breaks the law, is there not someone who is capable of judging whether it was done on purpose or not? Otherwise there is anarchy. We just want the rules to be applied equally, with equanimity and objectivity.
“What happened was clear to everyone and anyone who is objective can evaluate what happened. This is not the first time it has happened, not just for Lazio, but other situations, we need to make sure a third, external institution can evaluate if this is a coincidence or not.”
"I saw MMA more than I saw football." 😮@Bonetti was FIRED UP after a crazy finish to Lazio vs. Milan 🥊 pic.twitter.com/4OA6K5rpKj
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) March 1, 2024
Lazio were a disgrace.
@Albert are you ok? Lazio were disrespected so they should take every means possible to never be refereed again by Di Belo.
Salernitana, Bologna there is one I’m missing and now this.
Albert what are you waffling on about! Three red cards , that’s the disgrace! If that was your team you would agree , the referee is being suspended so you are clearly wrong .Go back to watching F1.