In Italy, the recent "one" of the sports daily Corriere dello Sport has not finished making waves, in a country where racism in football is a recurring problem.
On Thursday, the newspaper put on its front page the photos of players Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling, with the title "Black friday". Corriere dello Sport thus illustrating the clash scheduled for Friday between their clubs, Inter Milan for Lukaku and AS Roma for Smalling. The article says that Belgian and English, "Who have learned to respect each other, have taken strong positions to denounce racism and have become symbols of their two clubs".
"The most stupid"
The two Italian Serie A clubs have called Thursday the "Terrible" and D'"Unacceptable" the title. The players concerned both reacted with a text lesson published on Twitter.
Romelu Lukaku said that the newspaper contributed to "Fueling negativity and racism instead of talking about the beautiful game that will be played in San Siro (the Milan stadium) between two big clubs ».
"Instead of focusing on a battle between two teams, the Corriere dello Sport is the stupidest" one "I've ever seen in my career. "
Smalling regretted an event " bad " and "Insensitive".
"I hope that the editors involved in publishing this title will take their responsibilities and understand the power they have through the words and the impact these words can have. "
"As an Italian, I am ashamed"Lukaku's agent, Federico Pastorello, told Sky Sport News that, more generally, "Racism is a big problem, a cultural problem". The question for him, "It's not just the title of a newspaper, it's what you breathe in stadiums, on social networks, in the streets". "All institutions must take the issue seriously"he said, saying that this is now the case in the Italian Championship and the Champions League.
"Corriere dello Sport" calls itself "enemy of racism"
The Corriere dello Sport has defended his titraille in an editorial on his site. The daily assured that she was "A praise of difference, the pride of difference and the magnificent richness of difference". "An innocent title (…) is turned into poison by those who have poison inside ", wrote the director of the daily, Ivan Zazzaroni.
On Friday, the newspaper devoted two pages and his "one" to his defense and denounced "A lynching against a newspaper that for a century defends freedom and equality". "Are we racists? ", headlines the daily on the front page, in the middle of several archival photos of articles dealing with the subject.
On the inside pages, everyday life is defined as "Enemy of racism" and judges that his title was "Perverted by the superficiality and bad faith of social networks and websites, quick to disguise the message".
After a long article, the Italian newspaper evokes Lukaku and Smalling, "Two extraordinary professionals".
"For them, we are sincerely sorry. Our intention was not to hurt them, but rather to enhance them. And we will continue to fight racism. And ignorance. "
