Villas-Boas fears more chanting

Andre Villas-Boas fears Lazio’s fine for monkey chanting will not stop their fans doing the same again tonight when they host Tottenham in the Europa League.

Lazio were last month fined £32,500 after UEFA found their fans guilty of chanting racist abuse towards Jermain Defoe, Andros Townsend and Aaron Lennon in September’s 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane.

UEFA have been criticised in the past for their lenient punishments for racism and although Villas-Boas praised the organisation for fining the Italian club, the Tottenham manager does not think that will prevent monkey-chanting occurring again at the Stadio Olimpico.

“UEFA decided to punish Lazio and rightly so,” Villas-Boas told a press conference at the Stadio Olimpico tonight.

“It doesn’t mean that incidents won’t happen again tomorrow.

“I think the players are in the right frame of mind to leave the authorities to deal with those situations in case it happens.

“That’s something that hopefully will not happen tomorrow.”