On Sunday, Juventus earned a vital 2-0 victory at the expense of their hosts Atalanta. However, the match was marred by another controversial episode in Italian football, as Dusan Vlahovic was racially abused by a section of the home supporters.
Nonetheless, the Serbian striker had the last laugh, scoring a wonderful last-minute strike that sealed the match beyond any doubt.
But in a bizarre post-match comment, Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini claimed that insults weren’t of racist nature, trying to dismiss them as mere “rude chants.”
“These moments are bad and they must be fought but without giving too much weight to what happened,” said the Orobici boss in his post-match interview with Sky Sport via Calciomercato.
“Pasalic and Djimsiti play for Atalanta, while in the past we had Ilicic, Sutalo and many players of the same ethnic group.
“Sometimes these are insults from other natures. Racism is a very serious matter and shouldn’t be confused with other incidents.
“It’s not always racism, sometimes they are also individual incidents. I think it is more rudeness than racism.
“If it was racism then even Pasalic would have been insulted because it targets the same ethnic group.
“Unfortunately, these are rude chants aimed at a player. I agree that racism must be fought but not confused, if we continue to lump all the grass together then we are all racists. Of course, I disagree.”
Juve FC say
Gasperini might be one of the smartest tacticians in football, but his comments were anything but wise. An insult that targets a person based on ethnicity is the definition of racism, and this was the case at the Gewiss Stadium on Sunday.
Moreover, the fact that Atalanta also have players from the Balkans region changes nothing in the equation.
When a section of Juventus fans racially abused Romelu Lukaku, the club took action and helped in identifying the culprits, so Gasperini could have spared himself the embarrassment by simply condemning the incident.
