SERIE A - Lotito receives reduce ban for breaking Covid-19 regulations

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) lowered Lazio president Claudio Lotito's penalty for breaking Covid-19 restrictions from a year to two months on Tuesday, as the Serie A club got reduced fines on appeal.

Following a FIGC investigation into adverse tests at the club in October and November last year, Lotito, 64, was initially suspended for seven months in March.

Following an initial appeal, Lotito's suspension was doubled to 12 months in April before being halved on Tuesday.

When eight Lazio employees tested positive in late October, on the eve of a Champions League match in Bruges, and again in November, before another Champions League encounter in Saint Petersburg, the club was accused of failing to notify local health authorities.

Because of Tuesday's decision, Lotito will keep his position as a FIGC councillor, which he would have had to give up if the 12-month ban had been upheld.

Lotito had been banned for two months in 2012 for violating transfer restrictions, and the FIGC does not allow anyone who has accumulated more than a year's worth of bans over a decade to be a councillor.