Angry on Saturday, combative on Sunday: the day after the racist insults of which he was the victim during an Italian Championship match, the goalkeeper of AC Milan and the French team Mike Maignan called on Sunday “quite a system to take its responsibilities. The racist insults and monkey cries aimed at him on the Udinese pitch continue to raise a wave of indignation in the world of football and beyond. “This is not the first time that this has happened to me. And I am not the first to whom this has happened. We have made press releases, advertising campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed,” noted Maignan on his X account (formerly Twitter).
“Today, an entire system must take its responsibilities,” he asserted, addressing the perpetrators of the racist insults, as well as the spectators “who were in the stand, who saw everything , who heard everything but chose to remain silent.” He urged “the authorities” to react: “With everything that is happening, if you do nothing, YOU WILL ALSO BE COMPLICED,” he insisted. “It’s a difficult fight, which will take time and courage. But it’s a fight that we will win,” assured the Blues goalkeeper.
It was not the player who was attacked. It’s the man. He’s the father of the family. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. And I’m not the first this has happened to.
We made press releases, advertising campaigns, protocols and nothing has changed.… pic.twitter.com/47tfcW4oNo
— Magic Mike Maignan (@mmseize) January 21, 2024
Saturday evening during the match between Udinese and AC Milan counting for the 21st day of the Italian Championship, spectators uttered monkey cries and racist insults in his direction.
“Enough is enough”
After first alerting the referee of the match, he then left the field in the 34th minute, imitated by his teammates, before resuming the match five minutes later. This strong gesture from the goalkeeper born in Guyana, trained at Paris SG and passed through Lille was praised by his teammates in the French team and AC Milan. “You are very far from being alone Mike Maignan. We are all with you,” wrote Kylian Mbappé, the superstar of Paris SG and captain of the France team, on X. “Always the same problems and still NO solution. Enough is enough,” he worried.
You are very far from being alone Mike Maignan.
We are all with you.
Still the same problems and still NO solution.
Enough is enough !!!!!!!!!!!!NO TO RACISM. ⛔️✊ pic.twitter.com/uqlCLMr00x
— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) January 20, 2024
“You have our full support Mike Maignan,” added the French Football Federation on the French team’s X account, while Marcus Thuram and Antoine Griezmann had given their support to their teammate on Saturday evening. “It’s even more beautiful to win like that, no to racism,” rejoiced his Portuguese teammate Rafael Leao after Milan’s 3-2 victory.
This is not the first time that Maignan has been the target of racist insults from the stands since he joined AC Milan in 2021. He denounced the behavior of Juve fans in September 2021, then of those of Cagliari in March 2022, but what happened at Bluenergy Stadium “has no place in a stadium” according to his coach Stefano Pioli.
The minister responsible for equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination Aurore Bergé described Maignan as “the face of dignity”. Other Serie A clubs have given their support to the French goalkeeper such as the great rival, Inter: “We are brothers, against all forms of discrimination and at your side”.
Match behind closed doors suspended
“We support Maignan and firmly condemn what happened in Udine,” said the president of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, who welcomed the referee’s decision to interrupt the match. match. FIFA President Gianni Infantino called for perpetrators of racist insults to be banned from all stadiums, as well as to introduce an “automatic forfeit” sanction for clubs whose fans commit these misdeeds.
While it is regularly confronted with the scourge of racism in stadiums, as experienced by the Ivorian Marc-André Zoro in 2005, the Ghanaian Kevin-Prince Boateng in 2013 or this season the Belgian Romelu Lukaku, Italy is still far from such firmness.
Fiorentina was thus only sanctioned in November with a suspended match behind closed doors for racist chants by its supporters. “How is it possible that in 2024 we will still hear racist chants in a stadium? The problem in my opinion is cultural,” accused Arrigo Sacchi, the former Italian coach in a column published by Gazzetta dello Sport which headlines in One on “The shame of Udine”.
The Italian Federation should sanction Udinese this Tuesday, a sanction which ranges from a fine to exclusion from the championship including the closure of stands or a suspension from the stadium for one or more matches.