Inter Coach Luciano Spalletti condemns the racist abuse aimed at Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly “with no ifs or buts”.
The defender was racially abused by a section of the Nerazzurri support on Saturday, resulting in a two match stadium ban and a further game for the Curva Nord.
“Mine is a condemnation with no ifs or buts,” Spalletti said in his Press conference ahead of the Empoli match.
Inter Coach Luciano Spalletti condemns the racist abuse aimed at Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly “with no ifs or buts”.
The defender was racially abused by a section of the Nerazzurri support on Saturday, resulting in a two match stadium ban and a further game for the Curva Nord.
“Mine is a condemnation with no ifs or buts,” Spalletti said in his Press conference ahead of the Empoli match.
“The time has come to say enough to those who engage in racist chants, discriminatory chants, or sneer at the Heysel or Superga tragedies.
“Enough to a stadium which whistles a Coach for 90 minutes. Enough to hatred in football in general. That’s the key thing.
“There’s so much that we could say, but I won’t get into the merits of a sentence which will hit the 80-90 per cent of the fans who prefer to go there rather than stay at home at Christmas.
“Going to the stadium is a beautiful thing, something which is completely different to the way it’s sometimes used by certain people or groups.
“It’s clear that on our side, the behaviour and education of the team has been seen previously and was seen in the game itself.
“The comportment of Inter is written into our constitution: Internazionale, because we’re brothers of the world.
“It’s a discourse open to those who have contact with us, we accept them without distinction about their shirt or skin.”
Should the match have been stopped?
“It could have been a solution in the moment, but we need to do something different because there are so many incidents.
“It’s not just about Koulibaly, we’re sorry and we stand beside him, just like all of those who are targeted during games because it’s not good to insult a player or a Coach for 90 minutes. It’s the same thing.
“When you start on a path you must always continue that way, you can’t change for what might be 1,000 or 100,000 people.
“You must always do the same thing, behave well on the pitch and be a sportsman.
“There’s huge disappointment about not being able to play in front of our fans, but if that’s something we have to do in order to win this battle then we accept it willingly.
“We accept the closed stadium, because it seems right to have different behaviour. We want to experience games in a different context, as they do in other countries where there is no segregation in the stadiums, because people want to participate and celebrate, sharing important emotions even with opposing fans.
“I don’t know what others can do, I’m not even sure of the exact rule. What I have to do is show the correct behaviour, to show my colleague that I am sorry what happened in the stadium.
“Shaking hands with your opponent at the end of the game, saying the right things in the Press conference: it’s about consistency of behaviour.
“Everyone must do right in the role they have.”