23 December 2009 - Apparently, It Did End There

On 23 December 2009, Lega Calcio resolved a lengthy dispute between Lazio forward Goran Pandev and his boss, club owner Claudio Lotito, by ordering the club to release Pandev and pay him €160,000.

The Macedonian international had played for Lazio since 2004 and had been a key performer for the Roman club, amassing a total of 60 goals in 177 appearances through the 2008-09 season--a season in which they won the Coppa Italia. But over the summer of 2009, with Pandev entering the last year of his contract, club and player drifted apart over Pandev's demands for a wage increase. When Lazio refused to accede to his demands, Pandev asked for a transfer.

The request incensed Lotito, who referred to the forward as a "rebel" and set a transfer fee at the improbably high amount of €19M. Zenit St. Petersburg approached the club with an offer for €13M, but could not reach an agreement. Meanwhile, Lazio refused to play Pandev and, at times, forced him to train on his own.

With the stalemate showing no signs of resolution, Pandev turned to the Italian league's governing body, Lega Calcio, claiming that Lazio's treatment was a breach of contract. The body agreed and, in their December order, commanded the club to release Pandev and pay him punitive damages. Lotito vowed to appeal, telling the press "I can only say that this doesn't end here."

It did end there, however, as Pandev signed with Inter just over two weeks later.

8 December 1929 - The Beginning Of A Beautiful Rivalry

On 8 December 1929, Lazio and Roma faced off for the first time, with Roma winning thanks to a late goal from striker Rodolfo Volk.

Tensions existed between the two teams even before that first match. Roma were founded in 1927, consolidating three other clubs based in the Italian capital in an effort to build a team that could compete with the more powerful northern clubs. Lazio, founded in 1900, resisted inclusion in that group, the only major team from Rome to do so.

Their first meeting was a Serie A match, played at Lazio's Campo Rondinella. Roma claimed victory as Volk's 73rd-minute goal was the only one of the day. Since then, they have played a total of 169 times, with Roma winning 48 to Lazio's 35. Roma have dominated the derby recently, winning seven of the last ten, but Lazio took the most recent honors with a 2-1 victory in October 2011. They also hold the record for the longest winning streak, taking six consecutive matches from 1950 to 1953.

The rivalry--known as the Derby della Capitale--has become one of the more heated derbies in football, with several incidents of violence on both sides. The worst moment came in 1979, when a Roma supporter fired a flare into the crowd, killing Lazio supporter Vincenzo Paparelli.

16 September 1979 - A Good Day To Tie

On 16 September 1979, the Serie A season kicked off with eight matches, seven of which ended in draws.

Goals were at a premium that day, as eleven of the sixteen teams in action failed to find the net, resulting in five scoreless draws: Ascoli-Napoli, Avellino-Lazio, Cagliari-Torino, Perugia-Catanzaro, and Roma-Milan. The other ineffective attack came from Pescara, who were on the wrong end of the day's only unbalanced result, losing 2-0 to Inter.

There were also two score draws, both of which ended 1-1: Fiorentina-Udinese and Juventus-Bologna.

Other leagues have experienced similar days, with eight draws out of eleven English First Division matches on 10 September 1966 and eight draws out of ten matches in the thirteenth round of the Argentine Clausura (though the matches occurred over a period of three days). On a percentage basis, the record goes to Scotland, with draws in all six Premier Division matches played on 22 January 1994.

[Special thanks to the Guardian's John Ashdown for the information, published in his Knowledge column on 3 May 2011.]

8 August 2009 - If They Had To Lose One, This Is The One They Would've Picked

On 8 August 2009, Lazio defeated Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana. As it turned out, it was the only competition Inter entered that season that they didn't win.

Established in 1988, the Suppercoppa Italiana pits the previous season's Serie A winners against the Coppa Italia holders. For 2009, those teams were Inter and Lazio, respectively. At the time, they both had won the competition four times and had even met in the 2000 edition, which Lazio won 4-3 (Inter participated that year as Coppa Italia runners-up, since Lazio had done the double the previous season).

Played at the Bird's Nest in Beijing, Inter looked the better of the two sides, with several close chances from new signing Samuel Eto'o. But Lazio were the ones to take the lead when their Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem knocked the ball home in the 63rd minute. They doubled their lead just three minutes later when captain Tommaso Rocchi (pictured) scored with a chip.

Eto'o finally found the back of the net in the 75th minute, but Diego Milito's apparent equalizer shortly afterward was ruled to be offside, so the match ended as a 2-1 Lazio victory. Inter earned some consolation, however, by winning that season's Serie A title, as well as the Coppa Italia and the Champions League.

14 July 2006 - Nobody Passes Go, Nobody Collects $200

On 14 July 2006, an Italian football federation panel announced the punishments for the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal, including relegations for Juventus, Fiorentina, and Lazio.

The announcement was the result of a police investigation into the 2005-06 Serie A season that found all three clubs, plus AC Milan, guilty of fixing matches by bribing referees. The prosecution requested relegations and points deductions for each club, reserving the harshest penalties for Juventus. The Turin club's general manager, Luciano Moggi (pictured), was a central figure in the collusion, which resulted in Juventus winning the Scudetto for 2005-06.

Although the prosecutors requested that Juventus be demoted at least two levels, the panel's sanction dropped them only to Serie B. They also stripped Juventus' 2005 and 2006 league titles and docked them 30 points for the upcoming season. Fiorentina and Lazio were relegated as well, while Milan escaped with a relatively minor points deduction. The Juventus board resigned en masse, while Moggi received a lifetime ban.

After the appeals process, the punishments were reduced. Juventus ended up as the only club relegated--for the first time in club history. The points deduction was lowered from 30 to 9, however, and they won promotion back to Serie A for the 2007-08 season.

24 January 1947 - The Start Of Giorgio's Journey

On 24 January 1947, Lazio and New York Cosmos star Giorgio Chinaglia was born in Carrara, Italy.

His family moved to Wales when he was 8, resulting in the striker starting his professional career in 1964 with Swansea Town. But after only six league appearances in two seasons, he moved back to Italy, where he spent three seasons in Serie C--one with Massese and two with Internapoli--before joining Lazio in 1969.

At Lazio, he became a dominating center forward, scoring 123 goals in seven seasons, including the matchwinner in a 1974 Rome derby. After the goal, he taunted the Roma supporters, a move that endeared him to Lazio's fans. That season, Lazio won their first-ever Scudetto.

In 1976, Chinaglia joined the New York Cosmos. Although other international stars preceded him to the US, he was the first to join the NASL while still in the prime of his career, as evidenced by his 242 goals in 254 matches. He was a six-time NASL all-star and was instrumental in delivering four of the team's five league titles.

He retired from playing when the Cosmos folded in 1985. A naturalized American, Chinaglia was inducted into the USA National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000 and currently hosts a daily show on Sirius satellite radio.

9 January 2001 - Eriksson's Early Arrivederci

On 9 January 2001, the 101st anniversary of Lazio's founding, manager Sven-Göran Eriksson gave the club a surprise present--his resignation.

Arriving in Rome from Serie A rival Sampdoria in 1997, the Swede quickly established himself as one of Lazio's most successful managers by winning the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana in 1998, while taking the club to that season's UEFA Cup Final. Although Lazio lost the final to Inter, Eriksson delivered European glory the following season, winning both the 1999 Cup Winner's Cup and 1999 UEFA Super Cup and finishing as runners-up to Milan in Serie A.

In the 1999-2000 season, Eriksson again brought success, delivering Lazio's second-ever Serie A title as part of a domestic treble that included repeat victories in the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana.

In October 2000, England approached Eriksson to replace departing national team manager Kevin Keegan. He agreed, on the condition he could make the switch at the end of the season. But that January, he decided not to wait any longer. He resigned from Lazio on the 9th and that month became the first-ever foreign manager of England.

11 November 2007 - The Death Of Gabriele Sandri

On 11 November 2007, a clash between supporters of Lazio and Juventus turned deadly when one of the fans was shot and killed by a policeman.

26-year old disc jockey and Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri was travelling to Milan from Rome with a group of friends to see Lazio play against Inter. Along the way, they stopped at a service station in Tuscany, where they ran into a group of Juventus fans. A fight broke out, followed shortly by the arrival of the police. Luigi Spaccarotella, one of the policemen, fired a shot that hit Sandri, who was sitting in his car. The bullet struck him in the neck and killed him.

Football supporters across Italy rioted in response, forcing the Italian Football Federation to cancel matches across the country.

During the subsequent investigation, Spaccarotella claimed to have fired his gun into the air, then accidentally set it off while running, believing that the second shot was the one that struck Sandri. In 2009, Spaccarotella was convicted of criminally negligent manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.

27 August 2001 - Ferguson's Greatest Mistake

On 27 August 2001, Dutch center back Jakob "Jaap" Stam completed his transfer from Manchester United to Lazio for a United-record £16.5 million. The move was a shock to everyone, including Stam.

Stam had arrived at Old Trafford in 1998 when United bought him from PSV Eindhoven for £10.6 million, making him history's most expensive Dutch footballer to that point. In his three seasons at United, the club won three Premier League titles, an FA Cup, and the UEFA Champions League. Individually, England's Professional Footballers' Association voted Stam to their Team of the Year for all three seasons.

In the summer of 2001, however, excerpts began appearing in the press from Stam's upcoming autobiography, Head to Head, including criticisms of his United teammates and claims that United manager Alex Ferguson ordered his players to dive in European matches. He also suggested that Ferguson violated FIFA rules in purchasing him from PSV. Within two weeks after those stories broke, Stam found himself in Lazio.

Ferguson claimed that Lazio's offer of £16.5 million - which more than doubled the previous record fee of £7 million received by United from Inter for midfielder Paul Ince in 1995 - was simply too good to refuse. In 2009, Ferguson admitted that Stam's transfer was one of his greatest mistakes, noting that the defender continued to play a top level for several years afterward.

Stam eventually retired in 2007 after seasons at Lazio, Milan, and Ajax.

26 February 2006 - Like A Nigel Tufnel Amp, Roma Goes To Eleven

On 26 February 2006, AS Roma set an Italian record by winning their eleventh consecutive league match. Even better for the Giallorossi, they set the record against bitter derby rivals Lazio at the clubs' shared stadium, the Stadio Olimpico.

The streak started on 21 December 2005 with a 4-0 home win over Chievo. Roma were sitting eighth in the Serie A table at the time, but had risen to fourth by the time they faced Lazio in the Derby della Capitale. For their part, Lazio were hopeful of ending Roma's winning run, having earned a 1-1 draw against their rivals earlier in the season. They drew further optimism from the fact that Roma captain and talisman Francesco Totti, who had scored eight goals in the run's previous ten matches, was unable to play due to injury.

As it turned out, however, Roma didn't need him. With Totti watching from the stands, Brazilian winger Amantino Mancini (pictured) provided the creative spark, first delivering a corner that his fellow Brazilian, midfielder Rodrigo Taddei, tapped into the net to put the visitors ahead in the 31st minute. In the second half, Mancini danced the ball into the Lazio box before laying it off for midfielder Alberto Aquilani to slot home in the 63rd minute. The home side were unable to penetrate the Roma defense, which held on for their eighth clean sheet of the streak.

The victory broke the previous Italian record of ten consecutive wins, set by Juventus in the 1931-32 season, then matched once by Bologna (1963-64) and twice by Milan (1950-51, 1989-90). Roma's record would not last as long, however, as Inter smashed it the next season, winning 17 straight. Coincidentally, Inter were the ones to end Roma's winning streak at 11 with a 1-1 draw on 5 March 2006.

9 January 1900 - Football Crosses The Rubicon

On 9 January 1900, a group of nine sportsmen in Rome founded the city's oldest football team, SS Lazio. Originally known as the Società Podistica Lazio ("Lazio Track and Field Society"), after the region surrounding Rome, the club played their first football match in 1902, securing a 3-0 win over fellow Roman side Virtus. Presumably, they had acquired at least two additional members by then to field a full side.

The founders chose their colors and badge to be symbolic of both ancient Rome and ancient Greece; the colors of blue and white come from the colors of the flag of Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, and represent Lazio's ambition as a multi-sport club, while the eagle is taken from the battle standard of ancient Rome.

Although Lazio have spent the majority of their existence in Italy's top flight, their success is comparitively recent. They won their first trophy, the Coppa d'Italia, in 1958, and have since added 4 more Italian Cups (1998, 2000, 2004, 2009), two Serie A titles (1974, 2000), one Serie B title (1969), and three Italian Super Cups (1998, 2000, 2009). They have also had some European success, winning the 1999 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the 1999 UEFA Super Cup, and the 1998 UEFA Cup.

Lazio currently play in Serie A, where they finished in tenth place last season. They qualified for the 2009-10 Europa League playoffs, however, by winning the 2009 Coppa d'Italia.

4 November 2001 - Pep Gets Off To A Positive Start In Italy

On 4 November 2001, Brescia lost away to Lazio, 5-0, in a Serie A league match. Adding insult to injury, Brescia's star Spanish midfielder Josep "Pep" Guardiola tested positive after the match for the steriod nandrolone and received a four-month ban.

Guardiola, who had moved to Brescia from Barcelona the previous month, had also tested positive for nandrolone after a match against Piacenza on 21 October. On both occasions, he denied having intentionally taken any prohibited substances, suggesting that nutritional supplements may have led to the test results. The ban remained in place, however, and started on 22 November for all club and international matches.

On 29 September 2009, almost eight years from the dates of the positive tests, Guardiola was finally cleared of all charges.

He currently manages his former club, Barcelona. In his first season in charge, he led them to the La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles.