‘Racism rot is deep’ in Italian football, says anti-discriminatory body Fare

The Fare Network, an organisation trying to fight inequality in football, says it has contacted the Italian FA to try to work with it and is awaiting a reply.

In the meantime, Fare’s work to combat racism in Italy involves working with a government agency, non-government organisations and other parts of society in the country.

Belgium international Lukaku said the abuse he suffered showed the game was “going backwards” and he hoped “the football federations all over the world react strongly on all cases of discrimination”.

The report into the incident conceded that chants, shouts and whistles were directed at Lukaku by Cagliari fans, but said they were not sufficient in “size and perception” to merit punishing the club and its supporters.

Anti-racism charity Kick It Out said: “This is a cowardly decision from Serie A and the Italian FA, in response to disgusting racist abuse aimed at Romelu Lukaku.

“We can only assume that the Italian authorities do not care that they are effectively endorsing this behaviour.

“As they refuse to take action against repeated racist abuse by the same group of supporters, it’s about time Uefa stepped in and showed some leadership.”

This is the third time Calgliari have been investigated for alleged racist abuse in the past two years after cases involving Moise Kean, the Italy forward now at Everton, and his then Juventus team-mate, France international Blaise Matuidi, but no action was taken over any of the incidents.