Italy announces microphones and cameras to punish racists – 05/23/2023 – Sport

Italian football authorities have announced they will take a “zero tolerance” approach to racist fans. Technology will be used to help identify offenders and ban them from stadiums, Serie A boss Luigi De Siervo said on Tuesday.

The issue of racist abuse towards players is at the top of the European football agenda after Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior was targeted during a weekend match against Valencia in Spain.

“There are in stadiums, as in society, a percentage of racist people,” said the Serie A executive.

“Today, with technology and stadium microphones, they can be heard and we can punish them. It’s a battle, like a tumor, you have to systematically remove it, even if you have recurrences,” he added.

De Siervo said Italy had banned around 170 Juventus fans after they insulted Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku during a Coppa Italia semi-final last month, calling it an example of the “road to zero tolerance” for racists.

The Italian government has announced it will invest 10 million euros (R$53.5 million) to promote Serie A abroad, using the sponsorship to support its own “Made in Italy” export campaign, said De Siervo.

Serie A has lagged behind the English Premier League and Spanish LaLiga in terms of strength and visibility, and Italian football has struggled with fan violence and other scandals.

Juventus, the most successful club in Italian football, were stripped of 10 points on Monday as part of an investigation into the club’s accounting.

But De Siervo said the investment of foreign funds in recent years has shown that Serie A is making a comeback, with Italian clubs in all three major European finals this season bolstering the recovery.

He said the Juventus case, related to transfer accounting, shows that Italy is dealing with a problem that affects the whole sector.

“We are the only mature country that looks at the problem and tries to solve it for the future,” he said.