In punishing black soccer star, Italian league sends wrong message on racism

Italian league sends wrong message on racism

PARIS — Mario Balotelli endures abuse that no 19-year-old should suffer — for no other reason than because he is black.

There is the ugly graffiti on walls leading to the San Siro stadium, where the Inter Milan striker plays. “Non sei un vero Italiano, sei un Africano nero,” it says. Translation: “You are not a true Italian, you are a black African.”

He hears unprintable racist chants and vicious boos when he plays; they live on even after matches are over in videos on the Internet. There was the time in Rome last June when, his sister says, hooligans threatened him and hurled a bunch of bananas into the bar where Balotelli was relaxing with fellow players from Italy’s under-21 squad, prompting the owner to call the police.

And what has the Italian league done in response to the insults he regularly faces? Unbelievably, it slapped Balotelli with a $10,000 fine last week.

“It’s like the world is upside down,” Cristina Balotelli says. “It’s ridiculous, and I think my brother just doesn’t want to think about it because he is so disgusted.”

In a fairer world, all you’d need to know about Balotelli is that he is young, gifted, quick, muscular, scores goals and is nicknamed “Super Mario.” He joined Inter in 2006. He made his first team debut in December of the following year, at age 17, as a late substitute in a 2-0 win against Cagliari. Two days after that, he scored twice in a 4-1 crushing of Reggina. With a total of 23 goals in 68 appearances for the 17-time Italian champions, a call-up to Italy’s national squad may not be far off.

But the racists who have long soiled Italian soccer don’t see Balotelli’s skills, just the color of his skin. Even when Inter isn’t playing, he has been targeted for abuse. Prosecutors in France are investigating taunts about Balotelli that Juventus supporters shouted when the Italian team played French champions Bordeaux in the Champions League last November, says the French anti-racist group that is pushing for criminal and sporting punishments in the probe.

Speaking by phone with The Associated Press, Cristina Balotelli said it is a testament to his character that her brother, somehow, manages not to be cowed by the hatred flowing from a vocal minority of “very ignorant people” who “need an enemy and they need someone to curse.” So far, he also has resisted the temptation of leaving it behind by going overseas, to the English Premier League, for example, where there has been talk of interest from clubs such as Arsenal or Chelsea.

“He gets very upset but then … he doesn’t think about it anymore, this is a strength,” his sister says. “Of course, I know that he is hurt.

“If he decides to go abroad, it shouldn’t just be because of this,” she adds. “It’s like to run away, it’s like to be defeated.”

Such outrages in Italy have gone on for years. In 2001, when 18-year-old Nigerian forward Schengun Omolade took the field for Treviso, fans hoisted a banner that said, “We don’t want a black player on our team” and then left the stadium. Before that, hooligans in Rome held aloft a large banner aimed at opposing Jewish fans: “Auschwitz Is Your Country; the Ovens Are Your Homes.” In 2005, Ivorian defender Marc Zoro was reduced to tears by racist boos and insults hurled at him by Inter supporters.

There’s been talk, talk and more talk about how such behavior is unacceptable. There have been modest fines, bans and threats from up high in the soccer world that matches could be suspended or that clubs could even be sent down to lower leagues or stopped from playing.

And yet, as Balotelli knows too well, it still it goes on. Deep-rooted racism is not restricted to Italian soccer — as was shown last week when violent clashes erupted between African crop-pickers and local residents in southern Italy.

After those riots, in which dozens were injured, Cristina Balotelli found herself fending off calls from reporters looking for comment from her brother, as if he must have something to say as one of the few high-profile black Italian success stories. That, in itself, suggests how widely Balotelli is marked for his skin color in Italy rather than because he’s an Italian teenager who is good at soccer, the national sporting passion.

“I said, ‘What has my brother got to do with this?’” she says. “I want my brother to lead his life without having all these burdens on his shoulders.

“We don’t have black politicians. We have very few blacks who are in important positions,” she adds. “He became a symbol of too many things.”

At times, for those 19-year-old shoulders, it all becomes too much.

A week ago in Verona, in a match Inter won thanks to Balotelli’s lone goal, he again heard insults and boos, directed, he said, at him and Luciano of Brazil, who also is black. In response, Balotelli mocked the crowd by applauding when he was substituted and by saying in a post-match TV interview that “the fans are more and more sickening.”

The Italian league’s fine followed the next day. If Inter’s subsequent appeal is rejected, then it will be a victory for hooligans — because now they know that by provoking Balotelli, they can get him punished, too.

“He just applauded for two seconds,” his brother, Corrado, told the AP. “It’s crazy.”

Associated Press Writer Jeremy Inson in Milan contributed.

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester(at)ap.org