By Andrew Warshaw
May 13 – Despite a recent crackdown on racism by football’s governing bodies, Sunday’s high-profile Serie A clash between AC Milan and Roma was halted because of abusive chanting by fans. Play was stopped by the referee for about two minutes at the start of the second half after chants were aimed at Milan’s black players from visiting Roma fans.
An announcement was made ordering the chants to cease before play resumed.
Kevin-Prince Boateng, whose famous walk-off in January during a winter-break friendly brought racism back to top of the footballing agenda and led in part to FIFA’s new anti-discimination Task Force being set up, was part of the Milan team that played out Sunday’s goalless draw though it appears the chanting was directed at teammate Mario Balotelli.
Following Boateng’s stance and a spate of other incidents, the Italian Football Federation introduced new rules to help referees deal with racist behaviour with officials given permission to abandon matches, while UEFA proposed that players and officials found guilty of racist behaviour could face 10-match bans and clubs could be forced to close part or all of their stadiums.
Following Sunday’s fixture being interrupted, AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri condemned Italian soccer culture as backward. “People should go to the stadium to see two teams battling each other on the pitch, not this sort of thing, it’s a place for the uncivilised,” he told Milan’s official website.
“Above all, the culture in Italy is backward…tonight we had racism, laser beams flashed in the eyes of players and an interrupted match.”
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