SERIE A were blasted after their new ‘say no to racism’ campaign poster featured the faces of three monkeys.
The Italian league have come under heavy scrutiny this season with a string of high-profile racism storms.
Serie A have come under more criticism after revealing their new anti-racism campaign
The posters feature the faces of three monkeys, supposedly to promote integration, multiculturalism and brotherhood
Lenient punishments to offenders and failure to support victims of racial abuse led many to believe Serie A simply do not take racism seriously.
And now their latest PR disaster has drawn further criticism.
AS Roma were not impressed with the choice of imagwery and publically voiced their concerns.
The club’s official English language account tweeted: “#ASRoma was very surprised to see what appears to be an anti-racist campaign from Serie A featuring painted monkeys on social media today. We understand the league wants to tackle racism but we don’t believe this is the right way to do it.”
The justification from the league is that “the Triptych, composed of three side-by-side paintings depicting monkeys, aims to spread the values of integration, multiculturalism and brotherhood”.
Meanwhile, the artist who produced the posters which feature the design of the Serie A football, Simone Fugazzotto, is renowned for using apes and gorillas in all of his work.
The painter said: “The concept, the aesthetics, the technical realisation, even if very important come later.
“With this Triptych I tried to tell this, that we are complex and fascinating creatures, that we can be sad or happy, Catholics, Muslims or Buddhists, but that, after all, what determines who we are are our actions, not the colour of the skin.”
RECENT EXAMPLES
Romelu Lukaku, Franck Kessie, Dalbert Henrique, Ronaldo Vieira, Miralem Pjanic, Mario Balotelli and Kalidou Koulibaly have all been racially abused in Serie A this season.
Vieira, Kessie and Lukaku had monkey chants directed at them but the punishments have been weak or non-existent.
Cagliari, whose fans have targeted Blaise Matuidi, Moise Kean and Lukaku within the last two years have been cleared of any wrongdoing and punishment every time.
All 20 top-flight clubs signed an open letter to the league at the end of November, calling for all to “act with speed, with purpose and with unity” because there is “no more time to waste”.
Most recently, Lukaku and Chris Smalling featured on the front page of Corriere dello Sport ahead of Inter vs Roma earlier this month, with the headline ‘Black Friday’.
The league’s commitment against all forms of prejudice is strong and concrete, we know that racism is an endemic and very complex problem… we are sure that we will be able to win the most important game against the evil that ruins the most beautiful sport in the world.
Luigi De Siervo
But speaking of his organisation’s latest anti-racism campaign, Serie A chief Luigi De Siervo said: “Sport, first and foremost football, is an extraordinary tool for conveying positive messages, fair play and tolerance.
“Simone’s paintings fully reflect these values and will remain on show in our headquarters.
“The league’s commitment against all forms of prejudice is strong and concrete, we know that racism is an endemic and very complex problem, which we will tackle on three different levels: the cultural one, through works like that of Simone, the sporting one, with a series of initiatives together with clubs and players, and the repressive one, thanks to the collaboration with the police.
“By acting simultaneously on these three different levels we are sure that we will be able to win the most important game against the evil that ruins the most beautiful sport in the world.”
Unsurprisingly, the posters drew plenty of tweets for exasperated viewers who simply could not believe Serie A decided to use monkeys.
One wrote: “It’s like they’re trying to solve a problem they truly do not understand.”
Another said: “This can’t be true….no way, has to be some sort of joke or mix up. Right???!!!!”
And a third user raged: “Do these guys even know what racism is?”
SunSport contacted Kick It Out for a statement but they declined on the grounds that they will only comment on English football.
Corriere dello Sport used the headline ‘Black Friday’ and pictured Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku on their front page this monthCredit: AP:Associated Press
Serie A clash between Roma and Napoli suspended after Man Utd target Koulibaly suffers sickening racist abuse
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
