Racism in football, an Italian survey is very scary

On January 20, Mike Maignan was the target of monkey cries in the Udinese stadium. The next day, the goalkeeper of the France team placed Italian football face to face with its responsibilities. “If you do nothing, YOU WILL ALSO BE COMPLICATED”he wrote in a message renamed by the daily Il Messaggero, in French on the front page of its Sports notebook, “Maignan, I accuse”.

Unfortunately, Maignan will neither be the first nor the last player to suffer this type of insult. On Thursday, the Italian SWG institute revealed the results of a survey, carried out among 800 people, which sent shivers down your spine. Indeed, 16% of Italians believe that imitating monkey cries and uttering racist insults are justified when supporting a football team.

Worrying results

A similar proportion of the sample declares that being a supporter of a team allows one to “say ‘gypsy’ or ‘jew’ to a player” (18%) and to “insult a player because of his nationality or origins » (18%). 74% of respondents consider it normal that “the targeted players take strong positions on the subject”, but 22% believe that “as public figures paid for entertainment, they must endure everything that happens”.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has article 62 in its regulations. This provides for the definitive stopping of a match in the event of a recurrence of racist insults. However, this scenario has never happened before.