Italian Clubs Strongly Condemn Use Of Monkeys In Serie A Anti-Racism Campaign
Serie A clubs AS Roma and AC Milan have come up in arms with Italian football authorities about using monkeys in artwork for a Serie A anti-racism campaign.
The “No To Racism” posters show three monkeys with painted faces.
The major question and bone of contention is, “how you can fight racism with something that looks like racism?”.
Italian football authorities have come under attack for failing to combat racism and the campaign was introduced less than two weeks after Corriere dello Sport used the headline ‘Black Friday’ alongside pictures of Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling ahead of a match between Inter Milan and Roma.
Italian football has been blighted by monkey chants and other incidents of racist abuse this season.
“Art can be powerful, but we strongly disagree with the use of monkeys as images in the fight against racism,” said an AC Milan statement.
Milan chief executive Ivan Gazidis said the images “came as a surprise, were insensitive and badly timed”.
AS Roma also expressed their “surprise”, adding: “We understand the league wants to tackle racism but we don’t believe this is the right way to do it.”
Serie A chief executive Luigi De Siervo has apologised for the “inappropriate” artwork featuring monkeys to illustrate its anti-racism campaign, with a new concept set to be presented early next year.
Its surprising and fascinatin that, Italian football is so racist that even their efforts to combat racism ends up being racism.
Fan Reactions
By Gerald Dandah
