ROME — Just two weeks before the eagerly anticipated top-of-the- table “derby of Italy” between Inter Milan and Juventus, a new racism row is brewing.
The corresponding fixture last season at Turin’s Olympic Stadium saw Juve fans racially abusing Inter’s Italian striker of Ghanaian origin, Mario Balotelli.
The teenager had annoyed the crowd with some typically impetuous actions on the pitch, but Juventus’s failure to take active measures to put a halt to the chants saw them penalised and forced to play their next home match behind closed doors.
Balotelli has since become Juve fans’ favourite villain and is often the target of abuse. On Sunday night during the 1-0 home win against Udinese, some sections chanted: “Se saltelli muore Balotelli”. Roughly that translates as: If you jump up and down, Balotelli will die.
While not actually racist in its content, it was certainly distasteful and dredged up unpleasant memories from last season.
Juventus, possibly worried by the implications of the chant, responded by announcing over the loudspeaker: “No to racism.” And the club will be keen to point out that they are eager supporters of Unesco’s “kick racism out of football” campaign.
And while they will almost certainly escape punishment for this episode, it will leave a sour taste and cannot but stoke the fires of an already bitter rivalry.
All parties were quick to condemn the chants, with Juve’s Malian midfielder, Momo Sissoko, saying after the game: “It’s absurd chanting against a player who isn’t even on the pitch.
“I hope certain things won’t happen again,” he said, referring to the racist chants of last year.
Juve boss Ciro Ferrara was more reserved , making an allusion to chants directed against him and his team-mates during his time at Napoli, relating to the fact that Naples is close to the Vesuvius volcano.
“I am against any kinds of insults and racial discrimination, but if you go to football matches it shouldn’t shock you. These are chants that you hear in all stadiums. I was a player and I remember the chant: ‘Vesuvius burnt everyone.’ I remember it and it hurt. It’s true the fans pay to come in but that doesn’t give them the right to offend.”
Two things suggest Juventus will not face a penalty for the latest chants: they did try to do something about it and the chants were very different from last year’s “a black man can’t be Italian”.