In case you didn’t know…
During Juventus’ 2-0 win over Cagliari on Tuesday, their young centre-forward Moise Kean was the subject of jeers and whistles to do with his race, and once Kean scored the second goal, he celebrated with his arms outstretched in front of a stand that held the Cagliari supporters.
An announcement rang out through the stadium’s speaker which warned fans against offensive behaviour but seemed to have little effect on the crowd who were now riled up by Kean’s response.
After the match, Moise Kean posted an image of his celebration on Instagram with a caption that read, “The best way to respond to racism”. Raheem Sterling had posted something similar last week after he faced racist abuse from the Montenegro supporters as they lost 5-1 to England.
However, it was the comments made by Leonardo Bonucci that caused things to truly spiral out of control. At a time when he should have been supporting his teammate, Bonucci said that the blame was “50-50” between the fans and Moise Kean, who he felt had incited the supporters.
The heart of the matter
Lilian Thuram spoke to Le Parisien recently and had some strong words for Bonucci’s response to his teammate being racially abused:
Lilian Thuram then went on to criticise football’s governing bodies for their lack of action, suggesting that if the victims did not speak up as strongly as they had done, there would be no response at all and the players would continue to be targeted.
What next?
Lilian Thuram is just one of many people within the footballing world who have spoken out in support of Moise Kean and criticised Bonucci for his poorly-worded response to the situation. There is likely to be many more who gradually come out and make comments, but this should be a real lesson for FIFA now. They must be more strict with their punishments.
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