Udinese to hand life ban to racists who insulted Maignan

Udinese's Italian general manager Franco Collavino said the club will ban for life the fans who shouted and chanted racist slogans against Milan's French goalkeeper Mike Maignan, forcing Saturday's match to be suspended for several minutes. Udinese will not tolerate racists in their stadium and, once identified by the police authorities, they will be banned for life after the unfortunate events they provoked at the Blueenergy Stadium last Saturday.

The police sanction, known in Italy as a Daspo (ban on access to sporting events), could be temporary, so Udinese have decided that the actions will have indefinite consequences regardless of the authorities' punishment. "A Daspo has a limited duration, but the club can decide to exclude a fan from a stadium for a longer period. We will work to exclude them from the stadium for life," Collavino told TV programme 'Rai Minuto 90'.

The president assured that it was an isolated incident involving only three individuals. The police have been working since Saturday, with the help of the club, to find the culprits. "Udinese is determined to go and identify those responsible for these gestures and did so immediately because, already at the end of the first half, we activated all the authorities, including the police, so that those responsible could be identified. What is certain is that it was one, two, at most three people. In any case, there was no chanting," he said.

Maignan issued a blunt statement on Sunday and branded all the authorities complicit if they did nothing about it. During the match, the goalkeeper warned the referee several times in the first hour of the match that he was receiving racist insults until he had had enough of the situation.

In the aftermath, the goalkeeper has received the support of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the Italian Football Federation, Serie A, the Italian government, several players and Udinese, who also condemned the incident in a statement.

 

January 21, 2024