A sick joke: Serie A comes under fire after using painting of monkeys for anti-racism campaign
- ‘Once again Italian football leaves the world speechless,’ says discrimination monitoring group
- Racism in the Italian top tier- league has become a serious problem with black players subjected to monkey chants during games
Serie A said “true art is provocation” after being criticised as insensitive toward racism for installing a painting at the Italian league’s headquarters featuring three monkeys to represent three different races.
While black players are regularly subjected to monkey chants in games, artist Simone Fugazzotto said his painting was meant “to show that we are all the same race.”
The league used the painting at a presentation of its anti-racism campaign in Milan, and Fare, soccer’s leading discrimination monitoring group, called it “a sick joke.”
“True art is provocation,” the league said in a statement on Monday. “The idea behind Fugazzotto’s artwork is that whoever shouts racist chants regresses to his primitive status of being a monkey.
“Serie A decided that every year it will have a different artist interpret the damage caused by racism,” the league added. ” Simone Fugazzotto, a witness to the whistles at [Napoli defender Kalidou] Koulibaly at the San Siro, made a provocative work in which the monkeys are actually the racist fans.”
Racism has been a problem all season with offensive chants aimed at Romelu Lukaku, Franck Kessie, Dalbert Henrique, Miralem Pjanic, Ronaldo Vieira, Koulibaly and Mario Balotelli. All of the players targeted – except for Pjanic, who is Bosnian – are black, and many of the incidents have gone unpunished.
“Once again Italian football leaves the world speechless,” Fare tweeted. “In a country in which the authorities fail to deal with racism week after week Serie A have launched a campaign that looks like a sick joke.”