Sadly for Italian football, the top clash between Juventus and Inter last week ended in ugly scenes both on the pitch and in the stands.
The Bianconeri hosted their arch-rivals at the Allianz Stadium in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final. Juan Cuadrado put Max Allegri’s men in the lead, but Romelu Lukaku converted a last-minute spot which sparked a sequence of regrettable incidents.
Some individuals in the Curva Sud directed racist chants towards the Belgian, and the latter received his marching orders alongside his captain Samir Handanovic and Cuadrado following a melee between the two sections of players.
In the aftermath, the sports judge decided to close Juve’s Curva Sud section for one match as a punishment. Therefore, this section will be empty for the Bianconeri’s big Serie A clash against Napoli on April 23.
Nonetheless, Juventus have lodged an appeal and are awaiting a final verdict on Friday. In the meantime, Juventus Chief Football Officer Francesco Calvo explains why he considers punishment unfair.
“Juventus is always very active in campaigns against racism,” said the club’s CFO via La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We were surprised that our help in identifying those responsible wasn’t taken into account.
“Finally, since Juve-Inter was a Coppa Italia match, it was a non-subscription event. So only 1028 were subscribers that day, out of the 4500 generally present in that sector.
“A large section of the fans who will not be able to go to attend the match against Napoli weren’t even at the stadium that day.
“The club, in addition to having made the video material collected by the 115 security cameras installed inside the Allianz Stadium available to the Police Headquarters, has identified two of the fans portrayed by some videos that have been making the rounds on social networks.”
