Inter Milan face more racism accusations
Reuters - Friday 15 March 2013, 11:13
There were renewed calls for action against rampant racism in Italian
football on Friday after Inter Milan fans were accused of abusing
Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor in a Europa League last 16
clash at the San Siro.
Adebayor,
who scored his side's away goal in a 4-1 defeat in the second leg that
saw them scrape through to the quarter-finals, was allegedly subjected
to monkey chants and plastic bananas were waved in one section of the
half-empty stadium.
"It's
very easy to hear the chanting so I'm sure UEFA will act on it,"
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas told reporters after Thursday's
match, when the London side went through after a 4-4 aggregrate
scoreline.
British newspapers lambasted Inter and the Italian game on Friday.
The
latest racism incident follows last month's Milan derby in which former
Inter striker Mario Balotelli was racially abused by fans, leading to
Inter being fined 50,000 euros.
Lazio,
who have a long-standing right wing element among their support, were
ordered by UEFA last month to play two matches behind closed doors after
racism by their fans in Europa League matches against Tottenham,
Maribor and Borussia Monchengladbach.
The
Rome club have reached the last eight of the Europa League having
beaten VfB Stuttgart on Thursday, with the home leg played in an empty
stadium. Their quarter-final home leg with Fenerbahce will also be
without fans.
Juventus coach
Antonio Conte has spoken out about the racist abuse afflicting Italian
stadiums, saying that fans should get behind their own teams and not
risk their side having to play matches behind closed doors.
"Songs
against other teams don't get us going. Fans should concentrate on
their own team, that's the best and gives us something extra," Conte
told a news conference ahead of the Serie A leaders' match at Bologna on
Saturday.
"I read
about bans and I don't want songs like that to have us playing behind
closed doors. We should do something so that from now until the end of
the season it doesn't happen again."
Juve fans were accused of singing racist chants about AC Milan's Italy forward Balotelli last weekend.
Serie
A decided the chants of "if you jump up and down Balotelli will die"
were not of a discriminatory nature but were still offensive and fined
the Turin club 4,000 euros.
Juve
had to play a game behind closed doors in 2009 after Balotelli, then
with Inter Milan, was racially abused from the stands with the chant "a
black Italian does not exist".