Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Roma and Lazio exchange insults following Rome derby

Roma and Lazio have continued their war of words following the 2-2 draw in the Rome derby on Sunday.

Francesco Totti's selfie celebration sparked it all, with Lazio president Claudio Lotito criticising the Giallorossi captain, saying it was "inappropriate" before saying in an interview with Radio Due he would "bet the Lazio presidency that Roma won't win the scudetto."

Roma's reply did not take long in coming with their president James Pallotta taking to the club's Twitter account to criticise his counterpart, writing: "A shame Lotito comments on Totti. A great moment but I would've almost preferred if he took a selfie of his own face after the goal."

At the same time, Roma's general manager, Mauro Baldissoni, alluded to Stefano Mauri's lengthy ban for match-fixing when he said: "Lazio are experts when it comes to betting, not us. We don't really know that much about it."

He added: "I like Pallotta's reply on Twitter to Lotito's criticism of Totti's selfie. There's now a risk that Lazio fans start supporting us [in order to get Lotito to resign]."

Lotito then responded to Baldissoni's remarks, saying: "I don't want to say anything controversial, but I'd like to tell him not to waste time with these things and instead to focus his efforts on keeping his own club's finances in order.

"If he wants, he can come to Formello [headquarters] and we can show him the bets we've won, in terms of rebalancing the books and improving Lazio's efficiency."

It did not end there, however, as Pallotta made another dig at Lotito in a statement on the Roma website.

"Lotito continues to make foolish and ignorant statements about our club's economics," Pallotta wrote. "Next time I come to Rome I will attempt to educate him on our strong and profitable financial position as I would speak to a young child (speaking slowly with as many one-syllable words as possible). If he still can't figure it out, I give up."

Lotito replied: "Apart from the lack of respect in the expressions used with a colleague, the president Pallotta should have another read through the books of the club he presides over, and which were approved a few months ago, and remind himself that in just the 2014 calendar year, they lost over 38 million euros, increasing overall debts to over 81 million."

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