Lazio President Claudio Lotito has come out firing, calling for a third institution to be formed for Serie A after the Biancocelesti saw three players get sent off in a 1-0 defeat to AC Milan.
Milan beat Lazio after a very late goal from Noah Okafor, but much of the spotlight was on the encounters between the players, with Luca Pellegrini, Adam Marusic and Matteo Guendouzi all seeing red during the game.
Referee Marco Di Bello was under immense pressure from Lazio throughout the game, as they were furious with him after two incidents where Mike Maignan collided with Taty Castellanos in the box and Pellegrini received a second yellow card after he was caught out by Christian Pulisic as he tried to put the ball out of play.
In stoppage time, with Milan 1-0 up, the situation got worse, as Marusic was dismissed for dissent, before Guendouzi was harshly sent off for reacting to a push from Pulisic.
Lazio manager Maurizio Sarri refused to speak to the media afterwards.
However, Lotito went on an outburst on DAZN, saying: "When the game goes like this, there have to be organisms set aside to evaluate the situation."
"It means the system is unreliable and when that happens, we need a third level of the institutions to put an end to the situation. When you break the law, there is an institution to judge," he added.
"In my view, today we went beyond the red line. We went beyond every imaginable limit. The club will make its voice heard in the right places for what everybody saw," he continued.
Lotito emphasised that if the system is "not able to guarantee its own reliability," then questions need to be posed. "We will make our voice heard in other institutions," he affirmed.
This was the first time a team had received three red cards in the same Serie A game since Palermo did so against Bologna in 2012.
"I don't know who Di Bello is or where he comes from. The time has come for the Lega to create a third element outside of the system," Lotito said.
This comes just a few hours after the Lazio President had said the club is behind a Lega Serie A plan to sue the FIGC and create a breakaway league, similar to what is done in the Premier League. Therefore, his feelings towards the FIGC were already pretty evident.
"I feel like the respect of the rules and of merit was lacking today. This was a forced defeat. A preannounced death. I know what institutions we should turn to and with which means to intervene," he said.
"Football is about sporting values. Today this game was entirely lacking in sporting values. I do not speak about this defeat with regret, but with the certainty of what I saw and what happened," Lotito added.
With this defeat, Lazio have now dropped to ninth in Serie A, having suffered three losses in their last four league games. If results go against them, they could be 11 points away from the top four.
