Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis was recorded saying they are ‘against UEFA and FIFA’, but the club officially condemned local journalists who heckled and insulted the referee after their Champions League loss to Milan.
The Partenopei were beaten 1-0 at San Siro in last night’s quarter-final first leg, though Luciano Spalletti was furious at the performance of referee Istvan Kovacs of Romania.
He was particularly angry at the red card to Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, the booking that rules Kim Min-jae out of the second leg and the lack of yellow cards to Rafael Leao for kicking a corner flag to pieces.
A video showed several Neapolitan journalists there to cover the match openly heckled and insulted Kovacs and UEFA refereeing observer Roberto Rosetti as they passed through the mixed zone after the match, shouting ‘shame’ and ‘bad match’ as they went by.
Napoli released a formal statement on their social media account this afternoon condemning the behaviour.
However, Napoli President De Laurentiis seemed to lean into the suggestions of bias when speaking to TikToker Ernesto Colella.
“This is football and this is UEFA. We are against UEFA and against FIFA, so it’s fair. We are such a strong team that we only conceded one goal, not three. We are a great side, now keep calm. We need the fans to understand they must come to the stadium to cheer on the players.”
Spalletti had warned he was ready to walk away and go home if the Napoli fans staged another silent protest during the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final, the way they did in the 4-0 Serie A home defeat to Milan.
When Colella urged De Laurentiis to make peace with the organised ultras groups and resolve the issue, he replied in the affirmative.
“It’s what we need to do, it’s what we need to do. I will see the Minister for the Interior today and we’ll see if we can find a solution.”