MILAN-. Serie A club Udinese vowed to work to identify supporters who used racist abuse at AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan and ban them for life following calls for authorities to impose stronger sanctions after another weekend in the that the duels in the Italian league were overshadowed by the behavior of the fans.
Maignan, who is black, left the pitch during the Serie A match against Udinese after he began hearing monkey sounds from the stands, he later described. His teammates joined the 28-year-old goalkeeper and the duel was suspended for five minutes. Milan won 3-2.
An Italian sports court is expected to hand out a Udinese sanction on Tuesday. This month, Lazio was sanctioned with a partial stadium closure for one match for racist shouts against Romelu Lukaku.
Authorities can also ban individuals – known as Daspo – from stadiums for up to five years.
“We are working to find those responsible, it could be two or three people. There were no chants, as neither the referee nor the prosecutor’s office noticed it. There were one, two, three bad people and that is enough for it to be something serious,” said Udinese general manager Franco Collavino. “They have already started to see the images from the stadium cameras, we also listen to the audio… Daspo has a time limit, but the club can decide to ban fans from its stadiums for a longer period. “We will work to ban them from the stadium for life.”
Maignan received support around the world following the abuse and his statement on Sunday calling on authorities to take tougher action.
Umberto Calcagno, leader of the Italian Players Association, supported his sentiments.
“Fighting this form of ignorance is difficult, but today it is possible thanks to the rules of the federation, as in the case of Saturday,” said Calcagno. “There was a great collaboration between Mike Maignan, the referee and the players.”
There is already a three-step process in which a match can be stopped twice before abandoning the match, but FIFA president Gianni Infantino suggested at the weekend that any fans whose fans abuse players with racist insults should leave the match. game.
Several racist incidents have been recorded in Italy and other European leagues over the years, with cases in Italy targeting Kevin-Prince Boateng, Mario Balotelli and Lukaku, among others.
Source: AP
