Romelu Lukaku was racially abused by some Juventus fans at the Allianz Stadium. Football Italia was among the accredited media for the game: here’s what editor Lorenzo Bettoni heard on Tuesday night.
The 29-year-old Lukaku started on the bench and was introduced in the second half. He started by receiving a yellow card for a rough tackle on Federico Gatti and that’s when Juventus fans began targeting him. Most of them insulted the Belgian forward by shouting ‘scemo’ – idiot in Italian – but others made monkey noises.
From the press box at the Allianz Stadium, it wasn’t easy to immediately identify the racist remarks against Lukaku from Curva Sud, which is quite far from the area reserved for journalists, but insults were a little louder after the Belgian converted a late penalty, celebrating by silencing fans in the Curva Sud. Lukaku had celebrated the same way during the international break when he scored three goals against Sweden for Belgium.
The situation became clearer after the final whistle when videos started circulating on social media, showing some Juventus fans in the Curva Sud racially insulting Lukaku, even calling him ‘monkey’ – something that wasn’t audible from the press box.
The racist insults didn’t come from the entirety of Juventus’ Curva, contrary to what happened in other Italian stadiums recently. Nevertheless, action will be taken by Juventus, who have always supported authorities in investigations when similar incidents have happened inside their arena. Those responsible will undoubtedly be identified thanks to CCTV at the Allianz Stadium and banned for several years, if not for life.
The Old Lady has recently launched a podcast to discuss the issue of racism, which vice-captain Danilo appeared on last week. The Brazilian defender was among those condemning the racist insults against Lukaku, who called for ‘actions’ from Lega Serie A against those who targeted him with shameful racist remarks.
Unfortunately, racism is still a big issue, not only in Serie A but also outside stadiums in the Peninsula. The problem when it comes to football is that somebody feels justified to racially abuse opposing players, thinking that these sorts of offences are not different from any other insult or – even worse – are jokes that others would forget as soon as the game finishes.
On Tuesday, it was alarming to see that some people still don’t understand how insulting and humiliating it is to be targeted just for the colour of their skin. Not to mention the pain caused by racism and racist laws in every country, including Italy, in the past. Not enough has been done to tackle this problem in football and clubs should be able to quickly identify and ban forever those who don’t only offend an opposing player but also the club they support.
@lorebetto