The Italian sports journalists' union has responded to accusations from Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis.

De Laurentiis accused Gazzetta dello Sport of harbouring an “active hatred for Napoli".

“The Unione Stampa Sportiva Italiana wants to not only express solidarity to the leaders and colleagues involved, but also reaffirms the need to bring these relationships to a point of civil confrontation, while respecting our roles," a statement reads.

“You can't just say the first thing that comes into your head on TV, perhaps mixed-up with a painful and partly undeserved elimination.

“Neither can you or should you, when you take these positions, seek to justify such defamatory arguments with the claim of being able to freely state what you think.

“This is especially true in the case of such inaccurate and dangerous stereotypes, disputed live by the interviewer and then in an appropriate manner by his colleagues in the studio.

“Above all, you cannot and must not refer to a journalist who has already been subject to serious intimidation, immediately after showing superficial solidarity, in reference to the baseless claim 'northern newspapers hate the south'.

“Journalists don't hate anyone, they just do their job.

“The Unione Stampa Sportiva Italiana expresses its deep concern at such behaviour, which is also not new on the part of President De Laurentiis, and calls for an immediate and aggressive intervention by the highest sporting institutions, CONI and the FIGC, to stop once and for all a dangerous spiral which has already exceeded the alert level for poisoning Italian sport.

“Having said this, the USSI is ready to support our colleague in all appropriate forums in which he wants to defend his dignity and his work, which are one and the same."