After the final whistle, which secured a 1-0 win for AC Milan against Cagliari, a brawl erupted on the pitch. Mike Maignan experienced racial abuse from the home fans and, along with Fikayo Tomori, took a stand.
The two made some gestures towards the Cagliari fans, rightfully so, but it wasn’t appreciated by the Cagliari players. A brawl thus erupted and emotions were running high from both sides.
In some videos that circulated last night (now removed due to copyright), monkey noises were heard loud and clear towards some Milan players. It’s something that shouldn’t happen in 2022 but the reality is that Italy still has big problems with it.
Speaking to Sky Italia after the game, as cited by Football Italia, Cagliari captain Joao Pedro made matters worse with his comments. He stated that he will defend the fans as he knows them well, despite many racism incidents at Cagliari in the last few years.
“I didn’t hear anything, no. That is a very delicate matter, but I was basically in midfield at the time. It was the end of the game, he started provoking them in turn and I tried to pull him away to avoid the situation getting worse.
“This is not a pleasant situation to talk about, but I have been here for eight years and I will defend the fans because I did not hear anything,” he stated.
If that was the case, can’t the opposing fans just boo him before straightly jumping to racist chants? There is a systemic issue with italian fans.
ear problem man. Better go check it out mr Joao Pedro
How can this mediocre player called to italy team by Mancini? You cannot defend and just ignore your racist fans like that. There is already proof every season Cagliari fans racist , did Joao Pedro blind or deaf?
Congrats, idiot of the month award go to Joao.Also,most idiotic statement of the year award goes to Joao.We hope ur family is proud.
Hope you like pretending you didn’t hear racist chants in serie B Joao cause that’s where you’re going, lol.
Really? You can’t hear anything when your fans throw whistle and racist chants to Milan players especially Mike and Tomori for 90 minutes? You’re lucky Ibra didn’t beat you.
I’m glad Milan crushed this racist club back to back. The only regret is Milan could score more so these mf’s can learn a lesson.
As an African living in Italy this not a surprise to me, imaging a parent telling his/her child if you don’t stop crying I’ll black people to come and eat you
This is true, it’s an old tale about L’uomo Nero (The Black Man). It’s kind of like the boogeyman. I went to Italy once and a friends child was afraid of me because of this old tale. It’s quite sad, this was 2019.
Wow how stupid do you have to be! I bet there were Cagliari fans how were offended too and Joao chose to defend the deplorable portion of the fan base, what a loser