We are in the midst of a massive uptick in racial abuse toward footballers around the world. Over the past year plus, incidents have been reported by players and fans spanning over continental borders.
It would be nearly impossible to compile a complete list of racist incidents, for there is no centralized reporting system in place and incidents often go unreported. However, The Independent, a news outlet based in England, totaled the number of reported instances to higher than 30 during 2019. Football Against Racism in Europe estimated that approximately 1/3 of the total incidents occurred in Italy.
How, in this day and age, are we as fans of the game allowing this to happen? It's even more surprising that this issue is in fact growing as opposed to improving.
It's easy to point to clubs, leagues and football's governing bodies and say they need to do more. And they do.
Nothing sums this up more than the events involving Belgian international striker Romelu Lukaku. Soon after joining his new club Inter Milan in Italy, the black striker was subjected to racist gestures and statements as and after he converted the match-winning penalty in an away match against Cagliari. Lukaku publicly condemned the actions and explained that the fans behind the goal were making "monkey gestures and noises" at him.
The response that followed was laughable.
Cagliari released a statement defending its fans' honor. Many might expect a club to stand up for its supporters, so this may not come as a complete surprise.
Serie A disciplinary judge Gerardo Mastrandrea issued a statement in the days following the match, in which he announced there would be no punishment for the supports' actions. Throughout the report, there was no mention of the word "racist."
Then, fans of Lukaku's own club reached out to him, saying that while they understand how he could have viewed the actions as racist, they really weren't.
A previous incident, again involving Cagliari fans, featured Juventus striker Moise Kean being racial abused. In post-match interviews, his own manager and teammates blamed him for initiating the interaction because of the way he celebrated a goal earlier in the match.
These problems are not limited to Cagliari. Similar issues have occurred at Atalanta and Hellas Verona.
The apathy of Serie A in regards to incidents like these has created a cesspool where racism has not only manifested itself, but it has become an acceptable part of culture at matches in Italy.
And the problem is a systemic one. It's not just the fans that are promoting racism. It's the league itself, and the representatives of the league.
In 2017, Ghanian international Sulley Montari, then plying his trade for Pescara, complained to the on-field referee about racial abuse coming from the fans during an away match at Cagliari. The referee proceeded not only to shrug Montari off, but issue him a yellow card. Montari walked off the pitch in anger. In the days following, Serie A issued Montari a one-match ban for "his role" in the incident.
One of the referee's primary responsibilities, along with adjudicating the match, is to keep the players safe. Punishing a player for reporting abuse is head-stretching at best, and eyebrow-raising at worst.
It gets worse. In 2014, the then-president of the Italian football federation, Carlo Tavecchio, was banned for six months for making comments about a fictitious African player eating bananas.
What more proof is needed that racism is ingrained into the federation than the president of said federation making racist comments.
Serie A needs to be better. In December, they launched a campaign in a rare attempt to try to combat racism throughout the game in Italy. Shockingly, they chose to featured images of monkeys as the cover image.
It's not nearly enough. The European Football Association (UEFA) and FIFA need to impose meaningful punishments on Serie A as a whole. Punishments that will directly affect the clubs and the owners.
Fines and warnings are no longer enough. UEFA should dock Serie A Champions League and Europa League spots for the continued, unprecedented racism that is occurring.
This way, clubs at the top of the league—thus, those that have the biggest viewing audiences, the most money, and the biggest fan bases—will grow angry and will begin to take racism seriously. And clubs themselves need to punish their own fans severely for this behavior.
By no means is this just an issue in Italy. In English in 2019, two Manchester City fans were accused of racism towards City's Raheem Sterling and Aston Villa's Tyrone Mings (then playing for Bournemouth). The club promptly banned both fans for life.
Serie A would do well to look toward the Premier League in its response to racism. This season, the Premier League launched the "no room for racism" campaign, which featured serious aesthetics and videos of numerous Premier League players of all backgrounds speaking about racism in football.
At the end of the day, though, no matter how much federations, governing bodies, league or clubs do, fans will behave how they desire. Fans outnumber footballers, and they outnumber stewards and police at matches.
The only way this will ever come under control is if fans of the game start emphasizing the importance of racial tolerance in the game of football. Fans are always going to be more likely to listen to other fans, over high ranking executives or league spokespeople.
It is our responsible as fans of the game to disseminate an absolute-zero-tolerance attitude about racism in football.
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