SS Lazio
The sky-blue eagles of Rome, twice Italian champions and seven-time Coppa Italia winners.
Società Sportiva Lazio (Italian pronunciation: [sotʃeˈta sporˈtiːva ˈlattsjo]; BIT: SSL; Lazio Sport Club), commonly known as SS Lazio or simply Lazio, is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. Founded in 1900, the club plays in the Serie A and has spent most of its history in the top tier of Italian football. Lazio were Italian champions in 1974 and 2000. They have won the Coppa Italia seven times, the Supercoppa Italiana five times, and both the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup on one occasion. They also won the 1968–69 Serie B. Lazio share the 70,634 capacity Stadio Olimpico with Roma.
- Rivalry Type
- Competitive League and Cup Rivalry
- Key Competition
- Serie A and Coppa Italia
- Notable Context
- Often decisive for Scudetti or domestic cups
Lore & Background
The club's earliest major honour was a domestic cup win in 1958. In 1974, they won their first Serie A title. The 1990s were the most successful period in Lazio's history: they reached the UEFA Cup final in 1998; won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 1999; and clinched the Serie A title in 2000. Due to a severe economic crisis in 2002 that forced the departure of president Sergio Cragnotti and the selling of several star players, Lazio's success in the league declined. In spite of the lower funds, the club has won four Coppa Italia titles since then: 2004, 2009, 2013 and 2019. Current president Claudio Lotito took charge of the club in 2004 following a two-year vacancy in the position.
In Their Own Story
The air inside the Stadio Olimpico hangs heavy, not with the smoke of local hatred, but with the electric tension of a title decider. The blue-black sea of Inter fans clashes visually with the sky-blue wave of Lazio supporters, separated only by the white lines of history and pride. As the referee blows the final whistle after a grueling ninety minutes, the silence is brief before erupting into pure emotion. In this moment, there are no neighbors to fight, only two giants acknowledging that one has bested the other in a battle for Italian supremacy.
Reader's Guide
Lazio's traditional kit colours are sky blue shirts and white shorts with white socks; these reflect Rome's ancient Hellenic legacy. Sky blue socks have also been interchangeably used as home colours. Lazio share a long-standing and fierce rivalry with AS Roma, against whom they have contested the Derby della Capitale since 1929. Despite initially not having any parent–subsidiary relation with the male and female professional team (that was incorporated as S.S. Lazio S.p.A.), the founding of Società Sportiva Lazio allowed the club to participate in over 40 different sports disciplines in total.
Did You Know?
- Lazio was the only major Roman club that resisted the Fascist regime's attempts to merge all the city's teams into Roma in 1927.
- Lazio won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 1999.
- Lazio became the first Italian football club to be quoted on the Italian Piazza Affari stock market in 2000.
- Lazio's colours of white and sky blue were inspired by the national emblem of Greece.
More in Great Rivalries & Derbies
Related in Inter Milan
Links follow this subject's own source article.
Elsewhere in the Inter Milan universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record