ITALIAN newspaper Corriere dello Sport is embroiled in a racism storm after printing a “Black Friday” headline alongside photos of Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling.
The publication was previewing the upcoming game between Inter Milan and Roma where they used photos of the two former Manchester United players.
4
The two ex-United stars will go up against each other in the Serie A clash.
Unsurprisingly, football fans and Serie A clubs have reacted with anger and disgust at the choice of words.
Only days ago all 20 clubs in Italy’s top flight wrote a letter to fans begging to eradicate racism.
Regan Walsh posted on Twitter that the newspaper is “f***ing disgusting”, while Phil Slattery wrote that it should be “cancelled”.
4
Andrew Cesare tweeted that it was a “shocking front page”, while Colin Millar posted that it “was not normal”.
Scott Munroe labelled it “vile and disgusting” before adding that there are “no words”.
Allen Cooper wrote that it was “unbelievable”, with another football fan expressing his shock that “this is actually happening in 2019”.
Even Serie A side Roma, Smalling’s team, were clearly disgusted, tweeting: “No one, absolutely nobody, not a single soul.”
Italian football has been blighted by racism this season.
Most recently, Mario Balotelli reacted after he was being racially abused playing for Brescia against Hellas Verona.
RACISM STORM CONTINUES
The former Liverpool and Manchester City striker launched the ball into the stands after prolonged abuse by opposition supporters, and has hardly received the full backing of his club since then.
A statement released by Brescia’s own fans called Balotelli “arrogant” and his body language took a notable downturn.
Brescia owner Massimo Cellino has also failed to calm the atmosphere having made what he called an ill-timed joke about Balotelli’s skin colour.
Incredibly, Cellino has now told Balotelli he can leave the club on a free transfer in January.
SunSport reported at the end of November how Lukaku has begged Uefa to act after he was targeted with vile racist abuse.
4
He claimed “the whole stadium” erupted into racist chants during Inter Milan’s game away at Slavia Prague.
In September after he scored a penalty, Cagliari fans jeered him with monkey noises.
Shockingly, the Italian side avoided punishment with the country’s Football Association deciding the noises “were not discriminatory”.
4
