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By launching an anti-racism campaign with a painting of three monkeys, the Italian Football League caused an uproar. After 24 hours of criticism, the body apologized on Tuesday December 17 for this " inappropriate " initiative.
It started from a good feeling. Or rather an inescapable necessity as the scourge of racism still prevails in football in Italy. On Monday 16 December, the Italian Football League launched a communication campaign entitled " No to racism ". The form, it caused a scandal.
Because to support its campaign, the League called on the work of artist Simone Fugazzotto. Result: to fight against racism in football which particularly targets colored players, the League published three posters showing monkeys with colorful faces of different colors.
Roma and Milan step up to the plate
In a country where black footballers are the subject of monkey cries and banana throwing, the campaign is intended to be confusing. It didn't take long for social media reviews to build up. AS Rome, the club which had to apologize in October after some of its supporters had verbally attacked the English player of Bissau-Guinean origin Ronaldo Vieira, had little taste for these posters. " We understand that the League wants to attack racism, but we do not believe that this is the right way to do it, " Roma responded in a statement.
AC Milan did not appreciate either. The Rossoneri have chained angered press releases for a few weeks elsewhere. At the beginning of December, the Lombard club had lambasted the newspaper Corriere dello Sport , which had seen fit to put in front two colored players, Chris Smalling (AS Rome) and Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan), both already victims of racism, with the title " Black Friday ".
Art can be powerful, but we strongly disagree with the use of monkeys as images in the fight against racism and were surprised by the total lack of consultation. @SerieA_EN pic.twitter.com/M7wFjhsfj2
AC Milan (@acmilan) December 17, 2019This Tuesday, December 17, the Milanese have stolen the Italian Football League campaign: " Art can be powerful, but we strongly disagree with the use of monkeys as images of combat against racism and are surprised by the total absence of consultation. "
" A campaign that looks like a bad joke "
The Italian League has justified its choice to opt for this singular triptych with these monkeys. Its objective was to " defend the values of integration, multiculturalism and fraternity ". Moreover, these posters are only part of the “ No to Racism ” campaign. They are also accompanied by a charter to be signed by the 20 clubs of Serie A, the Italian elite championship.
The artist Simone Fugazzotto declared, for his part, that " we are all monkeys " and that with his work, he wanted to " tell that we are complex and exciting creatures, that we can be sad or happy, Catholic , Muslim or Buddhist, but that basically what determines who we are is what we do, not the color of our skin . ”
Once again Italian football leaves the world speechless.
In a country in which the authorities fail to deal with racism week after week #SerieA have launched a campaign that looks like a sick joke. https://t.co/3TwmlVznAW
None of these arguments could, however, put an end to the controversy. The association FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) summed up the general impression: “ Once again, Italian football leaves the world speechless. In a country in which the authorities remain unable, week after week, to deal with racism, Serie A has launched a campaign that looks like a bad joke. "
Serie A apologizes but remains determined
Luigi De Siervo, the managing director of Serie A who presented the campaign on Monday, presented this Tuesday, December 17 in a statement " his apologies to all those who felt offended ." " I realized it was inappropriate, " he said. And if he conceded that the initiative was " questionable ", on the other hand, " what is not to be questioned is the strong and constant condemnation of Serie A against all forms of discrimination and racism, phenomena that [we] undertake to eradicate from [our] championship ”.
In addition to the charter against racism, each Serie A club has appointed a player responsible for carrying and symbolizing this fight as " anti-racism representative ". Among them, we find the French Blaise Matuidi (Juventus), the Argentinian Joaquin Correa (Lazio Rome), the Ghanaian Kevin-Prince Boateng (Fiorentina), the Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly (Naples), the Ivorian Gervinho (Parma) or even the Italian Davide Calabria (AC Milan).
► See : Italy: racism gangrene football