ROME, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Fans of Italy's Lazio football club are threatening demonstrations in protest of any discipline that may be given to a player for using a fascist salute.
Paolo Di Canio celebrated a win over the Roma club with a straight-armed, flat-handed gesture, known since the rule of the World War II Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as a "Roman salute" at the end of a game Thursday that Lazio won 3-1, the Independent reported Monday.
Di Canio, whose fans are threatening public protests if he is disciplined, has denied political significance to the salute that was captured on photographs published throughout Italy.
"I am a professional footballer and my celebrations had nothing to do with political behavior of any kind," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
However, Di Canio has the word Dux tattooed on his arm -- dux is the Latin term used by Mussolini, who also called himself el Duce for leader. In his autobiography, Di Canio said he was fascinated by the dictator, whom he called "basically a very principled, ethical individual."
Soccer officials have begun an investigation; under Italian law, encouraging fascism is a crime.
