By News desk with agency report
The President of world governing football body, Gianni Infantino, has called on Italian football to apply English-style punishments to supporters guilty of racism.
In England, fans who engage in racist behaviour face stadium bans.
“You can’t have racism in society or in football. In Italy, the situation hasn’t improved. Racism is combated with education, condemnation and discussion,” Infantino said.
“You need to identify those responsible and throw them out of the stadiums. You need, as in England, the certainty of the penalty. You can’t be afraid to condemn racists, we need to combat them until they stop,”FIFA boss said.
It would be recalled that Sunday’s game between Atalanta and Fiorentina was halted after reports of racist chanting, the latest in a line of similar incidents in Italy.”
Fiorentina’s Brazilian wing-back Dalbert told the referee he had been the target of racist chanting and the Serie A match, which finished 2-2, was temporarily suspended.
An announcement was read out over the public address system and the game continued.
Last week, Cagliary were cleared of racist chanting towards Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku in a Serie A match.
That was the third time Cagliari have been investigated for alleged racist abuse in the past two years. Previous cases involved Moise Kean, the Italy forward now at Everton, and France midfielder Blaise Matuidi, Kean’s then Juventus team-mate – but no action was taken on either occasion.
