Alwaght- Italian soccer authorities are under fire for banning a Ghanaian African Muslim player because he protested against racist crowd abuse.
Sulley Ali Muntari has been suspended by the Disciplinary Commission for walking off during Cagliari-Pescara due to racist insults, but Inter and Lazio have suspended bans.
Now with Pescara, the former Milan and Ghana midfielder was handed a one-match suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards. That may well be standard practice, but his latest booking came in Sunday’s meeting with Cagliari. Muntari became visibly upset with a section of the Stadio Sant’Elia crowd, initially responding by speaking to a group of fans at half-time and even giving his shirt to one youngster while pleading that they set a better example.
Not only has the Muntari yellow card not been rescinded, and therefore he is given a one-match ban, but also Cagliari have avoided any punishment for the racist chants.
This is because the officials at the ground wrote in their report that the racist chants were coming from only around 10 people, thus less than one per cent of the circa 2,000 in the stadium.
They also noted it was only audible because the rest of the supporters were staging a ‘silent protest’ and therefore the decision was made not to penalise Cagliari, not even with a warning or a fine.
However, racist chants were clearly heard from Inter fans aimed towards Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly “from 80 per cent of the 7,000 people” in the ‘secondo anello verde’ section of the stands.
That section of San Siro is, therefore, closed, albeit only as a suspended sentence for a period of a year.
The incident caused huge controversy in Serie A and beyond, as the midfielder was booked by the referee for dissent.
Former player and soccer pundit Garth Crooks is now “calling for every self-respecting Black player in the Italian League to not play this week unless the Italian authorities withdraw the ban on Sulley Muntari.”
“The gutless failure to not take action by the Italian authorities should not be allowed to pass,” British anti-discrimination organization Kick It Out said in a statement on its website. “We urge Italian authorities to hear Muntari’s version of events, investigate why the situation was mismanaged, and take firm action to ensure this never happens again,” said international players association FIFPro in a statement.
FIFPro added that “Muntari was well within his rights to approach referee Daniele Minelli, as the first point of reference, to make his grievances known and seek a solution” and called for his first yellow card to be rescinded.
Unfortunately, Muntari’s case is not the only recent case of racism with the league. Muntari, who has also played in the English Premier League and internationally for Ghana, was playing for arguably Italy’s most famous club, AC Milan, in 2013, when German-Ghanaian teammate Kevin-Prince Boateng left the field because of racist chants from Pro Patria supporters in a friendly match.
