Racial chants are back in soccer field, but not on English soil this time. Last week, racial chants caused the abandonment of a friendlier between AC Milan and a lower division club Pro Patria in Italy. Racism has long been a topic of discussion among various soccer community forums and this is probably the first time when a team decided to walk out of a match after racial chants from the crowd. The match between AC Milan and Pro Patria had begun when crowd started chanting against black Milan players; public announcer also requested them to stop doing that but when it continues, Ghana and Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince kicked the ball on the crowd where the chanting was coming from, took off his shirt, and walked away. Soon, other players also joined him and left the pitch. Post incident, as always, everybody seems to be engaged in taking a corrective action and first of them is Italian soccer federation, who promptly announced an immediate inquiry of the matter. On the other hand, Milan’s owner Silvio Berlusconi said his team would do the same again if there is no improvement.
International players’ union, FIFPro also looks to be in support of Milan action. It issued a statement that reads as, “FIFPro is not encouraging other players to directly walk of the field when they are racially abused. But the world of football has to realize that this abusive behavior must stop. Racism has no place in society or football. The players of Milan sent a clear message: if racism does not stop, then football will.” Taking the instance as one of the major loopholes in stadium security, a prosecutor in Busto Arsizio said to have initiated a criminal investigation against culprit spectators involved in the incident.
While most of the peoples are in support of Milan’s move, there is another section who is blaming Milan to take this extreme step coz it was a low level match; perhaps, many commenters were listed saying, if it would be an international or a league event, Milan would have never done this. Actually, racism has always been a part of soccer especially on European soil; moreover, sometimes, it is intelligently used by host fans to downgrade the moral of visiting black players; hence it looks not to be a big issue considering the recent cases where players confronted with each other in most violent way. So, it looks like a melodious drama surrounding racism without solid evidence.