Roma v Napoli temporarily suspended due to anti-territorial chants
Saturday 2 November 2019 18:44, UK
The Serie A match between Roma v Napoli was briefly suspended on Saturday after anti-territorial chants from the home supporters.
Referee Gianluca Rocchi made the decision in the second half after Roma fans aimed the discriminatory chants at Napoli.
Such chants are often used by supporters to deride an opposing club's city and are treated by officials in the same manner as racist chants
Rocchi had already ordered an announcement to be made over the Stadio Olimpico's public address system asking fans to stop the chants.
During the suspension, both teams gathered in the centre circle, before Roma forward Edin Dzeko encouraged fans to stop the negative chanting.
"Since my Italian is not good I didn't really understand what happened but I'm against any sort of territorial discrimination," said Roma's Portuguese manager Paulo Fonseca.
"To me, it was more important to see our captain (Dzeko) talk to the fans and see that it didn't occur again," he added.
Roma led 2-0 at the time of the suspension before going on to win 2-1.
Serie A has been marred by several occurrences of racism this season, including incidents involving Romelu Lukaku and Ronaldo Vieria.
