French football goalkeeper Mike Maignan was the target of racist shouting. Gianni Infantino, the president of the international football association Fifa, demands tough measures.
The match of Serie A, Italy’s main soccer league, was interrupted on Saturday when AC Milan players walked into the locker room in the middle of the match.
Milan’s French goalkeeper Mike Maignan told about racist shouting from the spectators to the referee during the match and the crowd was asked to stop.
When the missing did not stop, Milan left the field. The match resumed after a break of about five minutes. Milan beat Udinese 3–2 away from home.
On Sunday, Maignan demanded action message service in X. According to him, creators, spectators, clubs and authorities must take more responsibility.
– The player was not the target of the attack, but a man who is a family man. This wasn’t the first time this happened to me. And I’m not the first one this has happened to. We publish press releases, advertising campaigns and protocols, but nothing changes.
After the incident, Maignan received a lot of support on social media, including from a French star From Kylian Mbappe and Milan’s local opposition from Inter.
There was also a racist incident in the English Championship on Saturday. During the match between Sheffield Wednesday and Coventry City, supporters of the home team Wednesday shouted racially at the Coventry striker To Kasey Palmer. Coventry won the match 2–1.
– It is disappointing that I even have to write about this. “Racism is shameful… it has no place in the world, let alone in football,” Palmer wrote message service in X.
The Fifa leader roared
After the incidents, the International Football Association Fifa published in social media its president Gianni Infantino statement. Infantino described the incidents between Udinese and Sheffield as disgusting and unacceptable.
In international football, racism is tackled with a three-step process. In the first stage, the referee stops the match and asks the audience to stop the racist behavior.
In the second phase, the referee orders the teams off the field until the racist behavior ends.
The third way is to stop the match completely and play it at another time. In his statement, Infantino demands even stronger measures.
– We need to implement automatic transfer to a team whose supporters have committed racism, which has led to the suspension of the match. In addition, global gate bans to stadiums and criminal charges against racists are needed, Infantino writes.