Fascist salutes after soccer goal by Mussolini’s great-grandson to be probed

Fans of club Juve Stabia give outstretched arm gesture to celebrate winning goal by Romano Floriani Mussolini; Italian soccer federation opens investigation

By AFP and ToI Staff 24 December 2024, 6:05 pm Edit
Screen capture from video of Italian soccer fans giving fascist salutes to celebrate a goal scored by the great-grandson of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, Cesena, Italy, December 23, 2024. (X. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Screen capture from video of Italian soccer fans giving fascist salutes to celebrate a goal scored by the great-grandson of wartime dictator Benito Mussolini, Cesena, Italy, December 23, 2024. (X. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

ROME, Italy — The Italian football federation on Monday opened an investigation after supporters of second-division club Juve Stabia celebrated a goal scored by Benito Mussolini’s great-grandson with fascist salutes.

Romano Floriani Mussolini scored his first goal for the Serie B team in their 1-0 win at Cesena, with video footage showing fans shouting “Mussolini” with one arm outstretched.

“The federal prosecutor’s office (of the FIGC) will send a report on the incident… to the sports judge of Serie B for a ruling,” the FIGC said.

Floriani Mussolini, who came through Lazio’s academy, has played every league game for Juve Stabia this season on loan from the capital club.

His mother Alessandra, a former Italian and European MP, is the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 and who allied Italy with Nazi Germany in World War II.

From 1938, the Mussolini regime began stripping rights from Jews, banning them from public office, forbidding intermarriage, permitting the confiscation of their property, and eventually their internment.

Under the dictator’s regime, which ran until his deposition in July 1943, more than 7,000 Italian Jewish men, women, and children were murdered in the Nazi death camps.

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