Inter Milan fans say Cagliari fans were not racist
Inter Milan’s Curva Nord tell Romelu Lukaku that Cagliari fans were not racist towards him.
Inter Milan supporters became the latest example of how racist abuse towards players is swept under the rug and even excused. The Curva Nord offered an astonishingly bad defense of Cagliari fans even after one of their was the subject of such abuse.
By now everyone has either read or seen what happened in the game between Inter and Cagliari over the weekend where Romelu Lukaku was the target of monkey noises coming from the home support as he was about to take a penalty.
Any normal fanbase would be quick to rush to their player’s defense after that as it would be the logical thing to do. That’s not the case with some Inter Milan supporters, however, as they jumped through hoops in their statement trying to explain why what Lukaku heard was not racist.
A few choice quotes from the statement reads, “We are really sorry you thought what happened in Cagliari was racist. You have to understand that Italy is not like many other north European countries where racism is a REAL problem. We understand that it could have seemed racist to you but is not like that.”
Incredulously, it continues, “We are a multiethnic fans organization and have always welcomed players from everywhere. However, we have always used that “way” with other teams’ players in the past and probably will in the future. We are not racist and so are not the Cagliari fans.
When you declare that racism is a problem to be fought in Italy you just help the repression against all football fans including us and you contribute to create a problem that is not really there, not in the way that is perceived in other countries.
The fight to REAL racism has to begin in schools not in the stadiums, fans are just fans and they behave in different ways when behind the stadium as opposed to when they are in real life.”
https://twitter.com/NimaTavRood/status/1168951481237692421
Each paragraph seemed to be another example of what not to do in these situations. Not only do they try to paint themselves as the victims but they claim that they do the same as Cagliari fans and yet it still does not mean that they are racist.
They try to blame Lukaku and state that what he heard was not “real” racism and that he’s only creating a problem for fans and that any punishment would be unfair to said fans. The Curva Nord try to pass it off as normal and as simply a tactic fans use for opposition players.
How anyone can read that and think that makes sense is beyond comprehension. Yet, it should not be surprising.
Serie A has a long history of players suffering racial abuse and the clubs and leagues doing very little about it. One does not need to look too far either. Moise Kean, now at Everton, suffered the same away against Cagliari last season when he was a Juventus player and made worse when Bonucci tried to blame him for what happened.
The Italian Football Federation concluded in that case that there was nothing wrong and Cagliari got off without facing a punishment.
The fact of the matter is the statement put out by the Curva Nord illustrates how nothing has changed and likely will not in the short-term as this type of behavior is seen as normal on a football pitch.
Calling for change in schools does not mean that this should be allowed in stadiums. Being inside a football stadium does not convert those surroundings into a magic bubble that somehow makes it okay to make monkey noises at a black player. Passion and racism is nowhere near the same thing.
Cagliari is a repeat offender and faced no consequences from their last incident. Given the lack of action by those in charge and that they don’t see this as a problem, substantial measures are unlikely to take place once again.
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A player suffering racial abuse in Serie A, or any league for that matter, is almost inevitable. All the rest of us can do is highlight it and ask for change. Hopefully the supporters of the players who suffer this abuse, back their player and don’t try to excuse it like the Inter Milan ultras have done.