By Andrew Warshaw
January 16 – Kevin-Prince Boateng’s now famous walkoff in protest at being racially abused was technically against the rules, but the Ghanaian will not be punished, Serie A’s disciplinary commissioner has ruled.
Boeteng’s gesture was widely praised across the game, with a few notable exceptions, after he stopped playing and led his AC Milan team off the pitch during a winter break friendly at Italian fourth tier side Pro Patria after hearing repeated monkey chants.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Boateng had been “courageous” but that players walking off pitches was not going to be the long-term solution to racism.
Under Serie A regulations, its members are not permitted to take such action and the league has moved to make that clear, even though the incident took place during a friendly fixture.
“In the current regulations of football, no rule allows a team to stop a game and abandon the pitch without the agreement of the referee or public safety bodies,” a Serie A statement read.
“However, the essential values of sport and civility exclude disciplinary action in a gesture of solidarity towards a victim of vulgar insults solely because of the colour of his skin.”
Italian authorities have already introduced new procedures to deal with racist incidents.
Italy’s watchdog for sports events,the ONMS, has said that in future cases of racism the referee should alert the fourth official who should in turn report the incident to the public security department responsible for policing at games.
Pro Patria has been ordered to play one home match behind closed doors while a preliminary judge has barred six supporters accused of inciting racism from all sports events in Italy for five years.
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