Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi and Alessandro Florenzi met with Roma Ultras to ask them to return for the derby with Lazio.
Sunday sees the first Derby della Capitale of the season, but the hardcore fans of both sides are boycotting Stadio Olimpico because of barriers introduced at the start of last season.
Last term that saw the embarrassing situation of a Rome derby with a half-empty stadium, and it appears the same thing may happen this weekend.
Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi and Alessandro Florenzi met with Roma Ultras to ask them to return for the derby with Lazio.
Sunday sees the first Derby della Capitale of the season, but the hardcore fans of both sides are boycotting Stadio Olimpico because of barriers introduced at the start of last season.
Last term that saw the embarrassing situation of a Rome derby with a half-empty stadium, and it appears the same thing may happen this weekend.
However, Gazzetta dello Sport explains that three of the Giallorossi’s local heroes have gone to speak with the Ultras to ask them to return.
Captain Francesco Totti, vice-captain Daniele De Rossi and their fellow Roman Alessandro Florenzi met with around 500 of the Curva Sud Ultras in the city yesterday.
“We want them to come back, like old times,” Totti explained after the meeting.
“We need them to reach our objectives.”
De Rossi expressed his desire for the Curva to return to how it was before the barriers, as did Florenzi.
The trio were warmly received by the Ultras, with the most common response being, “beat Lazio”.
However, it’s not expected that the fans will return to the Curva Sud on Sunday, for fear of delegitimising their protest.
Around 15,000 tickets are available for the area behind the goal, but so far just 2,000 have been sold.