Europe: Senegalese forward Demba Ba urges black footballers to leave Serie A
Former premier league star Demba Ba has urged all black footballers in the Italian top-flight league to leave the league following the disappointing response from Inter Milan ultras to the abuse Romelu Lukaku was resorted to over the weekend at Cagliari
The former Manchester United forward shared his disappointment after he was subjected to monkey chants from Cagliari fans after netting penalty to earn his side victory away from home saying football is going backwards in it’s fight against discrimination and precisely on racism
An Inter supporters group, L’Urlo della Nord has defended Cagliari fans with regards to the incident and said their behaviour was not racist
In an open letter to the Belgium forward, the fans said ” We are really sorry you thought that what happened in Cagliari was racist”
” You have to understand that Italy is not like many other north European countries where racism is a REAL problem”
” We understand that it could have seemed racist to you but it is not like that”
” In Italy we use some ‘ways’ only to ‘help our teams’ and to try to make our opponents nervous, not for racism but to mess them up”
” We are a multi – ethnic fans organization and we have always welcomed players from everywhere. However, we have always used that ‘way’ with other teams’ players in the past and we probably will in the future”
” We are not racist and so are not the Cagliari fans”
Following the release of such open letter to Lukaku, Demba Ba, a former team mate of Romelu Lukaku insisted enough was enough in regards to racism in Italy, urguing Lukaku and other black footballers to leave the Italian Serie A league
In his response to the letter, Ba tweeted;
” And here’s the reason why I decided not to play there when I could… And at this point I wish all black players would get out of this league! Surely it won’t stop their stupidity and hate but at least they won’t affect other races”
Sunday’s incident marked the fourth of such racist chants in the past two seasons by Cagliari fans at home in Serie A against opponents
Ghana’s Sulley Ali Muntari, French midfielder Blaise Matuidi and Italian youngster Moïse Kean have all suffered such abuses at the hands of Cagliari fans at home
By: Kanyiri Suburu Lucio/@SuburuAbdulai