Inter Milan striker, Romelu Lukaku, has finally reacted to racist abuse aimed at him during his side’s Serie A 2-1 victory over Cagliari on Sunday.
The Belgium international was subjected to monkey chants from the Cagliari supporters before and after he scored a penalty to win the game in the 72nd minute for Inter.
The former Chelsea and Everton star, who joined the Serie A giants on a five-year deal for £73million last month, took to his official Instagram account on Monday to demand immediate further action be taken to tackle racism in football.
“Many players in the last month have suffered from racial abuse. I did yesterday too,” Lukaku said.
“Football is a game to be enjoyed by everyone and we shouldn’t accept any form of discrimination that will put our game in shame.
“I hope the football federations all over the world react strongly on all cases of discrimination!
“Social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) need to work better as well with football clubs because every day you see at least a racist comment under a post of a person of colour.
“We’ve been saying it for years and still no action.
“Ladies and gentlemen it’s 2019. Instead of going forward we’re going backwards and I think as players we need [to] unify and make a statement on this matter to keep this game clean and enjoyable for everyone.”
Meanwhile, Cagliari have vowed to identify and ban individuals who did racist chanting on Lukaku.
A club statement read: “The Club underlines – once again – its intention to identify, isolate and ban those ignorant individuals whose shameful actions and behaviours are completely against those values that Cagliari Calcio strongly promotes in all their initiatives. Every single day.
“Cagliari Calcio does not want to underplay what occurred last night, endorses the respectable moral values of its people from all the stadium sections, but firmly rejects the outrageous charge and silly stereotypes addressed to Cagliari supporters and the Sardinian people, which are absolutely unacceptable.
“Full solidarity to Romelu Lukaku and even stronger commitment toward annihilating one of the worst plagues that affect football and our world in general.”
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