Racism Clouds Serie A

These should be the best of times for Italian football.

Juventus are on the verge of their second Champions League final in three years, new investors are promising a revival of AC Milan and Inter Milan and Serie A is slowly casting off its reputation for sterile defensive fare.

But it all risks being clouded by reminders of football’s dark ages: racism has returned to haunt the national sport.

Ten days after Ghana midfielder Sulley Muntari walked off in disgust after being racially abused during a match at Cagliari, the fans responsible have not been identified. No action has been taken against the Sardinian club.

Muntari however was penalised, after failing to persuade the referee to suspend the match.
Remonstrating with the fans earned him a first yellow card; walking off, a second and an automatic one-match ban.

An outcry spearheaded by the international players’ union and the UN human rights agency saw the ban overturned on appeal.

Muntari has subsequently sought to highlight his treatment in interviews. He says he was made to “feel like a criminal” and accused the game’s governing bodies of failing to take the race issue seriously.

Scrutiny of Italian football has increased after Juventus’ Moroccan defender Medhi Benatia cut short a TV interview on Saturday after reportedly hearing someone involved in the production describing him in racially derogatory terms.

That incident would appear to reflect racism in Italian society rather than being particular to football.

But according to sociologist and writer Mauro Valeri, Italian football’s racism problem is only partly about sport reflecting the outside world.

“What happened with Muntari is a very important episode. But only because he reacted. Sadly, this kind of thing is all too common,” Valeri told AFP.

“And it is not just Serie A and B. In junior football there have been 80 registered cases of black players being abused in the last two years. Usually by parents of their opponents and almost invariably nothing is done about it.”

The Muntari abuse was one of a string of recent cases of black players being verbally attacked from the stands.

Serie A has sanctions procedures but the criteria for applying them are so specific (such as the whole stadium must be able to hear the abuse), they are hardly ever used.

And when they are, the penalty is suspended so fines only apply in the event of a second offence. “It is just ridiculous,” says Valeri. “The result is racism is never punished.”

Another problem is that although Italy has strong legislation covering racial abuse, the law requires positive identification of the individuals involved, and clubs cannot be held responsible for failing to identify perpetrators.

Valeri says this is partly about clubs’ fear of alienating their most fervent fans, but broader cultural and political questions also shape attitudes in a specifically Italian way.