The Italian Serie A has condemned the racial abuse Romelu Lukaku was subjected to during the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final match between Inter Milan and Juventus on Tuesday night.
OsunDaily News had reported that Juventus fans made monkey chants at Romelu Lukaku during the game which ended 1-1.
Toward the last seconds of the match, Lukaku was fouled in the penalty box which earned Inter a penalty when they were trailing Juventus by a goal.
Fortunately, Lukaku stepped up and converted the spot-kick to force the game to end in a 1-1 draw.
Immediately after he scored the goal, he ran to the side of Juventus fans and placed his finger on his lip as if he was telling them to “shut up”.
The referee then took that as incitement and showed Lukaku a second yellow card before giving him the marching order.
The referee’s decision sparked rancor between the two teams because Inter Milan players felt that if any group should be punished should be Juventus fans for racially abusing Lukaku throughout the game.
In its reaction to the incident, the Italian Serie A stressed that the clubs would fish out the fans that abused Lukaku and those fans would be punished for it.
The league’s statement reads, “Serie A strongly condemns all instances of racism and any form of discrimination.
“A few people in the stands can’t ruin football and don’t represent all the fans at the stadium… Serie A clubs will, as they always have, be able to find the individuals responsible and ban them for life from their grounds.”
