Fines will not prevent racist chanting, insists Villas-Boas

Tottenham travel to Rome for Thursday's Europa League match against Lazio and the Portuguese coach is hoping that the Italian fans do not repeat their White Hart Lane behaviour

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas is hopeful that Lazio fans will not resort to racist chanting when the two sides meet in Rome on Thursday in the Europa League, with their previous fixture marred by unsavoury behaviour.

When the two clubs faced each other at White Hart Lane in October, Jermain Defoe, Andros Townsend and Aaron Lennon were subject to abuse from the travelling band of away supporters, resulting in a £32,500 fine from Uefa.

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However, Villas-Boas has no faith in such fines making a difference in the long run, with the former Chelsea manager convinced such incidents will continue to happen.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Villas-Boas told reporters: "Uefa decided to punish Lazio and rightly so. [But] It doesn't mean that incidents won't happen again.

"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."