On Sunday, October 17, 2010, history was made in the Italian serie A: a match was stopped due to fans’ racist chants. It happened at the Sant’Elia stadium in Cagliari (on the island of Sardinia). Just two minutes in, referee Paolo Tagliavento had enough of the monkey chants from the Cagliari ultras directed at Inter striker Samuel Eto’o.
Tagliavento blew his whistle, explained his decision to the two captains, then ordered the fourth official to have this announcement made over the stadium’s public address system: ‘If racist chants persist, the match will be suspended.’ It was repeated twice.
After the announcement no monkey chants poisoned the atmosphere. In a delicious twist to this sad affair, Eto’o went on to score the only goal of the match and celebrated by ‘monkeying’ around!
One reply on “Eto’o Scores Goal Against Racism”
Peter, thank you for posting this. I was curious about the Italian media reaction so I reviewed all major Italian newspaper websites for reports on the event. All of them praised the referee for (finally) taking a clear stand against racism in stadia–apart from Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s family. Namely, Il Giornale’s reporter opened the article with a reference to a mistake the referee had made in a game Inter (Eto’o’s team) played in 2009. Further on, he noted that the chants might simply have been directed to the visiting team in general (arguing that people in Sardinia have tradionally been used to “mixing with races and peoples from far away”), and closing with a detail that Eto’o fathered a daughter he then refused to recognize as his without a DNA test in 2004.
Basically, the newspaper controlled by the Italian prime minister offered a positive message, but wrapped it up in negative press about the individuals involved.
Just across the border, in Slovenia (the coutry where I live), the media largely overlooked the event.