Paul Ince has slammed racism in Italian football after Romelu Lukaku was targeted for new club Inter Milan, and revealed he was plagued with exactly the same problems when playing for the club during the 90s.
The spotlight recently fell on Lukaku after vile monkey chants were aimed in his direction by Cagliari supporters as he stepped up to take a penalty against their side.
Chants were very audible as Lukaku stood over the ball, before smashing it home to seal a 2-1 victory and aiming a long, hard stare at the crowd.
In the aftermath, Inter's own 'ultras' had the audacity to issue a post to Lukaku and insist the Cagliari fans were not being racist but simply trying to put him off his stride.
Now, speaking out on the issue, Ince has outlined the depths of which the roots of racism go in Italian football.
'Racism was such a big issue when I was playing in Italy, so I'm unfortunately not surprised about what's happened with Romelu Lukaku,' Ince told Paddy Power.
'It's funny because I remember going to Cremonese as an Inter Milan player. I went out for the ball with the goalkeeper and the keeper fouled me.
'We both went down, and was rolling around for a bit. I got up just to show I wasn't hurt and carried on playing.
'Then, suddenly half the stadium was shouting racial abuse at me.
'I'd done my hip in and I was trying to stay on, because I didn't want to come off and let them know I was hurt. But for the next 20 minutes or so, until half time, they were shouting awful stuff at me, 'negro' and 'negro di merdia' – that kind of thing. That was terrible.'
Ince admits that the problems were there quite literally from day one, after he arrived in Milan to find a racist message greeting him in his new country of residence.
'It was probably even worse when I first went to join Inter, there was even a racist remark on the wall about me, since the first day I landed there. It's always been there.
'It feels like Italian fans have always got away with it – their federation never stamped down on it, and so they still feel they can use that kind of behaviour to affect black players.
'I don't think UEFA did or do enough to stop it, they have to set a precedent down with all teams, whether it's in Italy, France, England, wherever – everyone, but they're not doing it.'
mopklrsy
0
Negro is outdated but not racist
Far from it, AF should actually report what was racist and quote appropriately to support their reporting rather than use quotes of non racist outdated words
mycorner
0
Whites with Racism!!!
huh?
mycorner
0
Negro is outdated but not racist
point missed sir
Fozbdknyz
1
Yeah l do agree with lance n l don't blame them bcs.they do nothing about it n l was even shocked when a hole couch said he heard nothing what kind of nonsense is that it's a shame to the ltalins as a hole
mopklrsy
0
Negro is outdated but not racist
AyanfunmiSbs
1
Just like SouthAfriaca with Xenophobia. There leaders dont want to admit it exists. Serie A shld take a lesson from South Africa and act before it gets out of hand
konbckmpty
1
Just boycott the league if you don’t like racism don’t watch that league black players pink purple blue orange red players should boycott that league.
Komklryz
1
the world is to civilized today for racism people how do that should be ashamed of their self and the bad example they are setting for their children and the younger generation
candekrt
1
Whites with Racism!!!