Serie A have bizarrely unveiled an anti-racism initiative by using paintings of apes.
Italian football has been marred by racism from fans over the past few years, with Romelu Lukaku, Mario Balotelli and Kalidou Koulibaly victims of abuse this season.
Inter Milan’s Lukaku was subjected to monkey chants as he took a penalty against Cagliari in September, while Balotelli booted a ball away in frustration while playing for Brescia against Hellas Verona last month.
Koulibaly has also been racially abused multiple times since joining Napoli in 2014, with the most recent incident coming last month when a game against Roma was temporarily suspended because of racist chants.
So it came as a shock to see Serie A’s anti-racism campaign include three faces of apes, which were painted by artist Simone Fugazzotto, who created the images to ‘change people’s perceptions’.
He said: “For an artist, there is nothing more important than trying to change people’s perceptions via their work.
“With this trio of paintings, I tried to show that we are all complex and fascinating creatures, who can be sad or happy, Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist, but at the end of the day, what decides who we are is not the colour of our skin.
“I only paint monkeys as a metaphor for human beings. We turn the concept back on the racists, as we are all monkeys originally.
“So I painted a Western monkey, an Asian monkey and a black monkey.”
Serie A general manager Luigi De Siervo added: “Simone’s paintings fully reflect the values of fair play and tolerance, so will remain in our headquarters.
“The Lega is taking a strong stand against any form of prejudice.
“We realise racism is an endemic problems and very complex, so we are facing it on three fronts – cultural, via works of art such as Simone’s paintings, sporting through a series of initiatives and players and clubs, and also repressive, thanks to the collaboration with the police.
“By acting on these three levels, we are sure that we can win the most important match against this plague that is ruining the world’s most beautiful sport.”
There was more controversy two weeks ago when Italian newspaper Corrierre dello Sport published a headline ‘Black Friday’ with images of Chris Smalling and Lukaku ahead of Inter Milan’s clash against Roma.
Both clubs responded by banning the paper until the New Year.
