Ghanaian International and Black Stars’ captain, Stephen Appiah has condemned the racist attack on fellow African, by Juventus fans, calling on the World Soccer governing body, FIFA and their European counterpart, UEFA to look into the allegation against the fans with view to stopping further occurrence.
Appiah said that such is not giving football the global image that has made its fans the World over come to admire star players in each country without considering the person’s colour or tribe.
“Football is a universal game and the players have conquered race, colour or tribe. The game speaks a universal language so we should do away with this archaic posture by certain uninformed fans, who do not see beyond their nose, hence this current accusation of Juve fans should be taken seriously to guide against a boomerang,” he said.
A section of their ‘Ultra’ fans chanted a racial slogan during Sunday’s home defeat against Catania at Turin’s Stadio Olimpico.
The notorious Scirea Stand ultras — the south stand is named after former Juve great Gaetano Scirea — chanted: “There are no black Italians” during the first half of the match.
The chant was one used against Inter Milan’s teenage striker Mario Balotelli last season, after which Juve had to play their next home match behind closed doors as punishment.
Balotelli is the son of Ghanaian immigrant parents but was born in Palermo in Sicily and has represented Italy at Under-21 level.
Juve have been under fire this season for the behaviour of their fans, twice copping further punishments following other anti-Balotelli chants. They were fined 20,000 and 25,000 euros after matches in which fans sang: “If you jump up and down Balotelli will die.”