Club Profile: S.S. Lazio
Società Sportiva Lazio (S.S. Lazio), known simply as Lazio, is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. The club was formed in 1900 and play their football at Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which they share with bitter rivals A.S Roma. The stadium seats just over 72,000 fans and is the second largest stadium in Italy, after the San Siro, and one of the largest in Europe.
In 1927, when Roma was created after a merger between three Roman clubs, Lazio was the only club that resisted the move. Lazio's decisions made them unpopular with the fans of the newly formed Roma, as the Lazio fans considered themselves loyal to their own club, as opposed to a newly created merged club. The rivalry has, since, intensified and the fixture between Roma and Lazio, know as Derby della Capitale is one of the most eagerly awaited, and hotly contested, matches of the Italian Serie A season every year.
In the 1980s, Lazio had some of its darkest days, as the club was involved in controversy throughout. The club were relegated from the Serie A for the first time when there was a scandal involving betting on their own matches. Their relegation affected the team very badly and they stayed in the Serie B for no less than 3 seasons. Their return to the top flight was short-lived, as they were relegated once more - the following season - after securing only 15 points in the season.
It did not get any better for Lazio, who were implicated once again in a scandal; this time related to betting, and were given a 9 point deduction. Their relegation to Serie C seemed inevitable, but miraculously, they managed to avoid relegation after winning two play-off games. This proved to be something of a turning point for the club, as they were promoted to the Serie A the following season and managed to stay there this time.
Lazio won their second and last Serie A title in 2000, as well as the Coppa Italia, in a historic double for the club. Their side at the time was one of the finest in Italy, and perhaps even Europe, with players like of Alessandro Nesta, Marcelo Salas, Pavel Nedvěd, and Siniša Mihajlović in the side and the Swede, Sven-Goran Eriksson as the manager. The club's supporters had waited a long time for this turnaround, and the title came at a good time for clubs from the Capital, Rome, as the other club from the city, Roma, took the title the following year.
Yet another scandal, and it wasn't their last, hit the club in 2004, when the owner, who was financing all of the club's transfer dealings, was forced to leave Lazio due to financial concerns over his businesses. The club had to sell fan-favourite and arguably their best asset, Alessandro Nesta, in order to meet the needs of the squad at large. The exodus of star names meant that the club once more struggled into mediocrity.
After the 2006 refereeing scandal, Lazio, despite the point deduction, finished 3rd and qualified for the Champions League. Last season, the club performed very poorly, though, and finished 12th in the league while their rivals, Roma, nearly clinched the title, only losing out on the last day to Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan.
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