Juan Jesus reacted to the news Inter’s Francesco Acerbi was cleared of racially abusing him and Napoli released a furious statement calling Serie A anti-racism initiatives ‘purely for show.’
The Brazilian changed his Instagram profile picture to an image of the Black Power salute, a fist raised in the air.
He has so far provided no other comment on the verdict from the sporting justice system, which cleared Acerbi for “insufficient evidence” as it was only the Napoli man’s word against his.
However, his club did come out fighting with a statement on the incident that occurred during a 1-1 Serie A draw at San Siro on March 17.
“Mr Acerbi was not sanctioned. At this point, according to the sporting ‘justice’ system, the guilty party must be Juan Jesus, for unjustly accusing a colleague.
“It is not reasonable to suggest that he misunderstood. The principle of most probability of an event, which was clearly visible from the way things played out and the apology on the pitch, has now vanished from the sporting justice system with this sentence.
“We are stunned. If the sentence states that the footage was ‘certainly compatible with the expression of an offensive phrase… from the Inter player, and the offender does not deny his comments were offensive or threatening,’ then why not take any sanction against him?
“Why, as the sentence states, if there was ‘certainly proof of some offence’ was no decision taken by the sporting ‘justice’ system to punish the person responsible?
“We are even more stunned. Napoli will no longer adhere to initiatives that are purely for show by the football institutions against racism and discrimination.
“We will continue to do them ourselves, the way we always have done, with renewed conviction and determination.”
It concluded with the hashtag #iostoconjj which means #IStandWithJJ
The incident occurred during a weekend when Serie A was staging its No To Racism campaign, complete with patches on the jerseys and statements read out by coaches.
There is no proof/evidence…