The Federal Court of Appeal of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on Tuesday sanctioned Claudio Lotito, president of Lazio, with two months of disqualification for a series of serious irregularities in the Covid-19 tests carried out on the squad in the past season.
The sanction also provides for five months of disqualification for the club’s two doctors, Ivo Pulcino and Fabio Rodia, in addition to a fine of 50,000 euros to the entity, according to the FIGC in an official statement.
“The Federal Court of Appeal, chaired by Marco Lipari, after the request of the Guarantee Institute of the CONI (Italian National Olympic Committee) to carry out a new study of the sanction measure on the ‘covid test case’, has partially accepted the resources proposed by the president of the club Claudio Lotito, doctors Ivo Pulcini and Fabio Rodia and SS Lazio, determining a sanction of two months of disqualification for Lotito and five months of disqualification for Pulcini and Rodia, “the statement read . “The club has been sanctioned with a fine of fifty thousand euros”, it is added.
Lotito had initially been sanctioned with twelve months of disqualification, but the appeal presented by his legal authorities caused a reduction in the punishment.
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The events date back to the end of October 2020, when the FIGC Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation after some Lazio footballers were left out of the list to play the Champions League match against Bruges on October 28, 2020, but they will return to compete just four days later, on November 1, against Torino in Serie A.
The situation raised even more suspicions after those players returned to be low on 4 November in the European duel against Zenit St. Petersburg.
Prosecutor’s investigations
The FIGC prosecutor ordered two investigations at the Lazio sports center, in which those responsible for verifying compliance with the health protocol have listened to President Lotito and doctor Pulcini.
In which some players returned to be low.
Lazio, contrary to many other Serie A clubs, did not publicly report the names of its coronavirus-positive players and the Italian media assure that two players were called up for two league commitments last year, despite being infected.