Stefano Eranio tried to explain his racist gaffe on Swiss TV, but only served to dig himself deeper.
The former Genoa, Milan and Derby County player was sacked by the television station Rsi after a comment during the Champions League 4-4 draw between Roma and Bayer Leverkusen.
“Black players in the defensive line often make these mistakes because they’re not concentrated,” said Eranio when referring to an error from German international Antonio Rudiger.
Stefano Eranio tried to explain his racist gaffe on Swiss TV, but only served to dig himself deeper.
The former Genoa, Milan and Derby County player was sacked by the television station Rsi after a comment during the Champions League 4-4 draw between Roma and Bayer Leverkusen.
“Black players in the defensive line often make these mistakes because they’re not concentrated,” said Eranio when referring to an error from German international Antonio Rudiger.
“They are powerful physically, but when it is time to think… they often make this type of error.”
He was fired by the Swiss station and tried to defend himself when speaking to Tuttomercatoweb, but this backfired when he seemed to double down on the racist comments.
“It’s disappointing that people have created all this controversy. I didn’t offend anyone and I don’t want people to make out as if I’m racist. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am not.
“It irritates me to be thrown to the wolves like this. The truth is I gave an incorrect opinion, in the sense that if I’d had to time to explain I would’ve said that I meant black players have never had a school of football in tactical terms similar to ours.
“Rudiger read the situation badly because black players are not accustomed to paying attention to certain details.
“If they were as detail-oriented as us, then they’d dominate the spot, because they have everything in terms of strength and technique.
“It was a misunderstanding, I don’t want to be made to appear racist. If they didn’t like my comment, they could’ve just told me and interrupted our collaboration. Why create all this controversy?”