Serie A’s Monkey and Banana Business!

 

By Nnamdi Okosieme

 

If an individual is dying from poison, the best way to save him is to give him more poison. This is the magic recipe hit upon by Serie A, organisers of the Italian Premier League.

Italian football is presently in the eye of the storm-and it’s all about monkeys! The reason is, in the Italian game especially in Serie A, old habits die hard, the most unpleasant of these habits being unbridled racism that has ravaged the game for years.

For a very long time racism has blighted the league with its organisers seeming powerless to act. Leading black players in the league like Ghanaian star, Sulley Muntari( who now plays for Albacete in Spain), Mario Balotelli, Kevin-Prince Boateng have in recent years being subjected to racist abuse including monkey chants and thrusting of bananas in their direction by fans of opposing clubs. New kids on the Italian football blocks like Romelu Lukaku, Chris Smalling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Moise Kean are the latest victims of racist slurs.

Early this month, an Italian newspaper, Corriere dello Sport, muddied the waters with its ‘Black Friday’ headline in its report previewing the Serie A clash between Internazionale of Milan and AS Roma. Beneath the headline were photos of Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling who play for the two clubs. The headline drew the ire of football followers including Lukaku and Smalling with Lukaku describing it as the “dumbest of headlines I have ever seen in my career”.

The Inter forward accused the paper of bad faith:

“You guys keep fuelling the negativity and the racism issue instead of talking about the beautiful game that’s going to be played at San Siro between two great clubs. Education is key. You guys of Corriere dello Sport should do a better job at that,” he said.

Corriere dello Sport’s gaffe certainly compounds a burgeoning trend in Italian football. A recent report released by the organisation, Observatory on Racism in Football, reflects the depth of racism in the game in Italy. According to the report, between 2011 and 2016, a total of 249 racist incidents were recorded in Italian football stadia while the figure for last season alone was 60.

Serie A clubs worried by the worsening racism in the league rose with one voice to challenge the ugly trend. In an open letter they addressed to “lovers of Italian football”, and titled, ‘Together Against Racism’, the clubs stated:

“We have to publicly recognize that we have a serious problem with racism. It’s a problem that we have not done enough to combat over the years. Images of players being racially abused in Italian football have been viewed and discussed all around the world this season and that shames us all. No individual should ever be subjected to racist abuse – inside or outside of football – and we can no longer stay silent on this issue or wait for it to magically disappear”.

As part of that commitment, every club has nominated a player to be part of the league’s anti-racism initiative. The clubs have signified their intention to lead the way by delivering a comprehensive and robust Serie A anti-racism policy, stricter new laws and regulations and a plan for educating those within the game about the scourge of racism.

“We don’t have any more time to waste. We must now act with speed, with purpose and with unity and we call on you, the fans, to support us in this vitally important endeavour,” the clubs stated in the letter.

Monkey business

Spurred in part by the determination and commitment of the clubs to end the scourge of racism, and by the increasing intransigence of ultra right fans whose monkey chants and other racist actions damage the sport, organizers of Serie A tired of being labelled lame duck over the issue, have ironically turned to the monkey for help.

This month the Serie A as part of its anti-racism campaign, commissioned the artist, Simone Fugazzotto to produce three artworks, which it said would be on display at its headquarters to signal its determination to stamp out racism in the league.

The works were quite literally stunning and left Italy and the rest of the world stunned-for the wrong reasons! The reason for the shock and surprise exhibited by the global football community was simple- in trying to solve a problem; the Serie A management was creating another.

Fugazzotto’s three artworks, which have since been hanging in the Serie A building, depicts three monkeys representing three different race types-African, Caucasian and Oriental.

Explaining the works, Fugazzotto noted that humans, being complex and fascinating creatures that can be sad or happy, or of any religious disposition, what determines actions are who people are, not the colour of their skins:

“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.”

PR suicide

The artist’s defence of his work has left everyone unimpressed. Italian news website Il Post described the anti-racism initiative as a PR suicide.

“Using monkeys amounts to PR suicide… The world is looking at us, and we just can’t get it right”, the news platform said.

The footballers themselves have been left fuming by the monkey business. Far away in England, Chelsea player Anita Asante reacted angrily in a tweet:

“@SerieA_EN You guys need to have a good look at yourselves. What is wrong with you? How many [people] looked at this commissioned artwork and signed off on this?”

Former Liverpool and England international, Stan Collymore, also lashed out at Serie A.

“Fantastic to see Serie A anti-racism campaign posters (yes, it’s really real)…Maybe get the mascots to black up as a finishing touch.”

Fare, the London based anti-discrimination organisation, weighed in with a tweet:

“Once again Italian football leaves the world speechless. In a country in which the authorities fail to deal with racism week after week, #SerieA have launched a campaign that looks like a sick joke.

“These creations are an outrage. They will be counter-productive and continue the dehumanization of people of African heritage.

“It is difficult to see what Serie A was thinking, who did they consult? It is time for the progressive clubs in the league to make their voice heard,” Fare said.

Two clubs, Roma, whose player, Smalling, had been the butt of racist slur with the newspaper headline, and AC Milan, criticized the Serie A anti-racism initiative.

Roma noted in a statement:

“AS Roma was very surprised to see what appears to be an anti-racist campaign from Serie A featuring painted monkeys on social media today,” read the tweet on Monday.

“We understand the league wants to tackle racism but we don’t believe this is the right way to do it.”

For its part, AC Milan said even though art is a powerful tool, it strongly disagreed with “the use of monkeys as images in the fight against racism”.

Serie A volte face

In the face of mounting criticism of Fugazzotto’s works, Serie A CEO, Luigi De Siervo, who initially rose to the defence of the artist by insisting the artworks, which he said reflected football values of fair play and tolerance, and so would be permanently place at Serie A headquarters, on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, capitulated.

In a statement, the Serie A boss said:

“I express sincere apologies for the artwork that was presented yesterday, I realized it was inappropriate. What cannot be questioned is the strong and constant condemnation by Serie A against all forms of discrimination and racism, and we are committed to eradicate this from our beloved league.

He said the league is working on its official anti-racism campaign, which should not be identified with Fugazzotto’s work, and would be presented by the end of February.

 

Culled from Opera News