Thierry Henry offered some strong words after Inter striker Romelu Lukaku saw his Serie A ban upheld despite being racially abused by Juventus fans.
The Belgian forward equalised from the spot in the first leg of Inter’s Coppa Italia semi-final tie, but was subject to vile racist abuse throughout and was later shown a second yellow for his “shh” gesture towards the Juve supporters. After the Italian top flight inexplicably upheld the one-match ban for Lukaku’s alleged “provocative behaviour”, Arsenal and France legend Henry, who coached the striker in his role as an assistant with the Belgian national team, was left incredulous.
“It’s [racial abuse] everywhere, it has been everywhere and it looks like it always will be,” Henry told CBS Sports on Tuesday. “You can’t say it was the whole stadium because it was not, but it still happens. I go back to common sense again – that [Lukaku receiving racial abuse and being booked for ‘provoking’ supporters] is not common sense. You can have common sense when the guy has been hearing that [racial abuse] and he shushes the crowd, and he receives a yellow because of that? I go back to common sense again, and, the Italian Football Federation keeps the yellow? Wow.
“I don’t know why they kept the yellow. I suffered in Italy [with racial abuse], I suffered with it everywhere. Every time it was your reaction getting punished. This time, a section of the stadium will be sanctioned, but I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of seeing the ‘No To Racism’ on the shirt. I’ve had enough of seeing that lousy picture at the start of the game when we all come together and we focus on what is on the field. Can we focus on some other places and see what we can do properly about this? The guy, I go back to, got a yellow card for this. Please, let’s stop.”
