JERUSALEM: Israel's sports minister has asked her Italian counterpart to crack down on racism in soccer after Lazio supporters littered a stadium with images of Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank wearing a jersey of city rival Roma.
Miri Regev's office says a letter dispatched to Luca Lotti called the display "despicable" and accused thousands of Lazio fans of openly identifying with neo-Nazi symbols. She wrote that calling Roma players "Jews" inferred they were a "scourge to be avoided."
The Italian soccer federation has said a passage from Frank's diary will be read aloud at all soccer matches in Italy this week. It said it would also be combined with a minute's silence before Serie A, B and C matches to promote Holocaust remembrance.