This Saturday evening, football was once again affected by one of its worst scourges in recent years: racism. During the meeting between Udinese and AC Milan, Mike Maignan was the target of racist cries. Furious, the French goalkeeper decided to return to the locker room, accompanied by his teammates. Finally, the match was able to resume ten minutes later but the former LOSC player, revolted, had already left his match. After the Rossoneri’s victory, several teammates of the 28-year-old goalkeeper came to his aid and several players from the France team, including Kylian Mbappé, showed their support for Mike Maignan.
This Sunday, it is Gianni Infantino’s turn to revolt against these repugnant acts. It was then that the FIFA president proposed the idea of a major sanction against teams whose supporters were guilty of racist obscenities: “The players affected by Saturday’s events have my full support. Racism has no place in football, just like any form of discrimination, in football but also in society. It is necessary for ALL stakeholders to act, starting with education in schools, so that future generations understand that this has no place in football and society. We must implement an automatic forfeit for teams whose supporters were the perpetrators of racism and caused the abandonment of the match, but also ensure that stadiums around the world ban and prosecute those at fault. FIFA shows its solidarity with the victims of racism and discrimination. (…) No to racism !» It remains to be seen whether these probable future sanctions will be able to reduce the racist incidents which have plagued football and our society for too long.
