"We were shocked. You think it could never happen to you, and yet it happened." Fabrizio Usai, president of the Gymnasium di Sassari, a third-division soccer team that plays on the Usini field, says this when he recounts what happened last week on the Mamoiada field.
"In the second half , a small group of spectators started making monkey noises towards Ba, one of our players from Gambia. Both we and the managers and opposing players defended our striker and reported the incident to the referee who suspended the match for 7 minutes," he says, "but during the week, a communication arrived from the sports judge who did not take any action since he confirmed the match behind closed doors for the home team but suspended the penalty. We are not interested in forfeit victories or penalties for the opponents, who, moreover, were on our side in defending our player, but we need a signal so that these episodes must not be repeated."
This is why President Usai, after the discriminatory chants last Sunday in Mamoiada, decided with the club not to take to the field yesterday against the opponents of a team from Sassari "to protest against the indifference of the sports judge who passes off the very serious incident as an event of little importance".
For the visiting players, who won 3-0 by default, a lunch was organized and the reasons for the decision were explained to them. " This is the first time we have witnessed something like this and we do not want silence to dominate", wrote Usai on social media, "this time we will not take to the field in protest, the next time we do not feel protected by the competent bodies, we will withdraw the team from the championship, because these episodes pollute football and all sport and go against the politics and ethics of our society founded on respect, integration and true sporting values".
(Online Union)
