The United Nations commission responsible for combating racism has raised a red flag over Italian football in its latest findings published on Thursday. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has expressed concern over economic and social issues in six countries, including Croatia, Namibia, Senegal, Turkmenistan and Uruguay, as well as in Italy, where football was given special mention. Racist abuse directed against players of African descent or from Eastern Europe in Serie A drew international attention in April with a one-game suspension for Romelu Lukaku.
The attacker received a second yellow card for celebrating Inter Milan’s late equalizer in the Italian Cup semi-final by turning to Juventus fans, who had racially abused him, and putting a finger to his lips.
After his initial one match suspension sparked an angry backlash, the Italian football authorities pardoned the Belgian.
CERD said in its statement that, as far as Italy was concerned, the country was “alarmed by politicians and senior government officials using hate speech and racist political discourse against ethnic minorities, particularly Roma, Sinti and Camminanti, Africans and people of African descent.”
“The commission has also raised a red flag over racist acts at sporting events, including physical and verbal attacks against athletes of African descent,” the statement continued.
“Italy was asked to investigate all racist abuses in sport and to punish those responsible.”
One of the commission’s members, Regine Esseneme from Cameroon, urged Italy to “pay particular attention to these cases, which are increasingly occurring against black people and people of African descent, especially in the context of football, so that national law …is effectively enforced, prosecutions are instituted and the guilty perpetrators are punished.”
Racist abuse by football fans has been a problem in several countries in recent months, with the repeated swear words directed at Real Madrid’s Brazilian striker Vinicius Junior in Spain another high-profile case.
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