On Saturday, the match between Milan and Udinese had to be suspended for several minutes due to another shameful episode of racism in Italian stadiums.
The victim was the French player Mike Maignan, Milan’s goalkeeper, who stood up to the racist chants of a part of the local fans by leaving the Udinese field at half an hour into the game for five minutes. The rest of his companions accompanied him without thinking. The goalkeeper had been warning the referee of the situation on several occasions, until he couldn’t take it anymore and left. In the 38th minute of the first half, when Milan was leading by one goal to zero, and after the local players demanded explanations from the fans, the Rossonero team returned to the field and the match was resumed. The referee made it clear that if the chants were repeated, the game would be permanently suspended.
The episode rose in temperature with a harsh statement from Maignan in which he exploded and attacked both Udinese and the Prosecutor’s Office, whom he accused of complicity in what he experienced. “It was not the player who was attacked. He has been the man. He has been the father of the family. It’s not the first time it’s happened to me. And I’m not the first to whom it happens. We have made press releases, advertising campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed,” he denounced on his social networks. “The spectators who were in the stands, who saw everything, who heard everything but who chose to remain silent, are complicit,” he continued. And he attacked: “The Udinese club, which only spoke of an interruption of the match, as if nothing had happened, is complicit. The authorities and the Prosecutor’s Office, with everything that is happening, if they do nothing, they will also be accomplices.”
For the moment, there have been no responses other than an official statement condemning Udinese in which they promised to collaborate to identify the fans who committed the insults and promised to punish those responsible. The president of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, applauded the referee for suspending the match, and assured that there is no room for racism in football.
Yesterday the world of football united in solidarity with the French player, starting with his team, Milan, which announced a blackout on its social media accounts in protest. The great institutions of Italian football joined him, several French players such as Kylian Mbappé or Antoine Griezmann, and even Inter, Milan’s eternal rival, which wrote: “We are brothers of the world, against all forms of discrimination. By your side, Mike.” Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, a loyal Milan fan, also wanted to comment on the matter, calling the chants “shameful.” “I hope that 2024 will bring a new culture and a new sporting spirit to the stadiums. I hope that those responsible intervene, I have seen that the Udinese club has already intervened with clear words. I also believe that you can’t blame entire cities or clubs on a few idiots,” he said. The mayor of Udine, Alberto Felice de Toni, has assured that his city is not racist and has proposed that honorary citizenship be given to the player.
Racism in Italian stadiums is not a new phenomenon. In 2019 the Italian Football Federation changed the rules to temporarily suspend matches in the case of racist chants. It was expected that, after the first incident, the teams must stop the game, while after the second they must go directly to the locker room. But this has not managed to stop a widespread phenomenon. For example, last season, in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup, Juventus was punished by playing its next home match in the championship with its stadium partially closed due to the racist chants that some of its fans directed against the forward of the team. Inter Milan Romelu Lukaku. Maignan himself has been the victim of similar insults on other occasions, such as in 2021, when he received them from Juventus fans.
